Lagatar24 Desk
Srinagar, Aug 22: Farooq Abdullah, the head of the National Conference and a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said on Monday that all local political parties are opposed to allowing non-locals to vote and that they may take the matter to court.
Both the Altaf Bukhari-led Apni Party and the Sajad Lone-led People’s Conference skipped the conference.
As a ‘counter-strategy’ to the conference organised by the National Conference, the BJP also called a meeting of senior leaders on Monday in Jammu.
Mehbooba Mufti, the head of the PDP, Vikar Rasool, the president of the Congress’ J&K branch, MY Tarigami, and representatives of the Shiv Sena attended the meeting at Farooq Abdullah’s home in the high-security Gupkar neighbourhood.
“We all parties are against this new law (voting rights for non-locals in J&K), we oppose it. We are also thinking about going to court on this,” said National Conference leader & former J&K CM, Farooq Abdullah.
Srinagar | We all parties are against this new law (voting rights for non-locals in J&K), we oppose it. We are also thinking about going to court on this: National Conference leader & former J&K CM, Farooq Abdullah pic.twitter.com/f8llEx9wQe
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2022
After comments made by the Chief Electoral Officer of the UT, Hirdesh Kumar, regarding the addition of voters to the amended records, a meeting was held to debate the problem of “inclusion of non-local voters” in the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir.
The National Conference and PDP declared that they will proceed with the conference despite the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s clarification of their position on some matters pertaining to the amended election rolls.
They asserted that the administration has not responded to their main worry, which is whether “outsiders” who typically reside in Jammu and Kashmir will be permitted to register as voters.
The inclusion of outsiders was allegedly a “clear-cut effort to disenfranchise the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” according to the major political parties.
