NEW DELHI: J&K opposition leaders believe that the Centre may not conduct Assembly election in the state due to rising security concerns in Jammu.
The leaders across all opposition political parties in Jammu and Kashmir are of the view that the centre may not conduct elections in the union territory due to the growing security concerns in the Jammu region.
A BJP leader said, “It seems less likely that the centre would conduct Assembly elections here. It could be that the local elections could be held.” Talking about the meetings that the BJP has been holding with its leaders in the union territory, the leader added that it can prove to be a fruitless exercise.
The saffron camp is wary, according to a senior Congress leader in Delhi, of three state elections (Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand) in the country as they think that they may not be able to perform well in these elections. He added, “Therefore, in the midst of that, if there are security challenges in Jammu and Kashmir as well, it will dent the perception which they have built nationally regarding the people of the union territory being with them.” Such is the view of the Congress Party, according to him.
However, senior leaders close to the top leadership of the BJP suggest that the elections will be conducted. Experts tracking national politics suggest that the elections will be held as the centre has already made preparations to run the union territory from Delhi, even if any party gets elected and comes to power. The ruling party has reduced the powers of the elected government and handed more powers to the governor to prevent another slide into violence of J&K.
Moreover, a section of opposition leaders in the union territory think, that since there are reduced powers attached to the state Assembly, it will stop the regional parties to demand elections as they will have less consequential power at the end of their pursuit. A leader said, “If any political party comes to power, how will they be able to do any public good? The government will have no right to transfer anyone, so the bureaucratic power apparatus will always tend to challenge the political power apparatus. Government won’t be able to do any public good because nobody will listen to them and they will have to request the governor to make things fall in line.”
In addition to this, other leaders believe that the ruling party at the centre cannot afford confrontation between the secretariat and governor on daily basis and therefore, they would try to withhold the elections. A leader from a regional party said, “Even if there is no administrative power with the government, there will be a lot of political power with the chief minister. For example, he speaks about the important affairs in the Assembly, it can also become international news. So, we cannot compare the government of Delhi with the government of Jammu and Kashmir.”
People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Tahir Sayeed said, “Government has submitted an affidavit in Supreme Court. Moreover, the home minister has also said on record that they will conduct the Assembly elections before September 31, in accordance with the ruling of the Supreme Court. If they think they can form the government, they will conduct the elections and if they don’t think so, they will have an excuse of security or other reasons to stall the elections. The clear- cut question is, if there are all other elections being conducted here, why not Assembly elections?”