Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and party candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary Constituency Mehbooba Mufti on Monday urged the Election Commission to stick to the scheduled date of elections in the newly carved out Lok Sabha segment.
Mufti said that she is hopeful that the EC would uphold the high standards of fair play, set by it in the past, by not allowing the election process in the politically and strategically sensitive state of J&K to be fiddled with.
Some political parties, including the BJP have written to the poll panel seeking deferring the elections due to bad weather. The EC sought a report from J&K authorities which has already been submitted.
“Nobody knows it better than the officials who have been asked to send their reports on the petition by the ruling BJP and its allies in Jammu and Kashmir to defer the elections, which in fact would mean invisible rigging of the democratic process,” she said.
She said the Chief Secretary being a son of the soil and other officials who have been part of the J&K cadre are aware of the cost the state, the nation, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir have had to pay for the subversion of democracy in the State.
She expressed hope that they would rise to the occasion and not be pressured into sending reports that defy the ground situation and history of elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mufti said that the Election Commission has effectively and successfully conducted elections in the State during severe winter and people and officials have braved heavy snowfall during the process of voting in the past.
“Even in 2014 in the wake of disastrous and unprecedented floods, elections were conducted in the State almost immediately when the infrastructure in Kashmir Valley and most parts of Jammu had completely collapsed,” she recalled.
“Sticking to the schedule in 2014 encouraged people in record numbers to participate in the democratic process,” she said and pointed out that nothing at that scale was visible presently as a result of seasonal rains like last year’s.
Mehbooba Mufti said there is no precedent in any part of the country to postpone elections because of the vagaries of weather. No part of the country is immune to such weather cycles.
“It will be an injustice with the voters and workers of all parties especially those who have been carrying out their campaigns despite lack of financial resources, like the PDP,” she said.
“The parties who have asked for the deferment of the elections, have the heaviest money bags at their disposal and it looks after observing their invisibility on the ground that they are solely banking upon manipulations in collaboration with the government and its agencies.
“If the Election Commission chooses to become part of this conspiracy, it will not be just unfortunate, but also could have very serious consequences given the fragile nature of our polity and the democratic deficit the state experienced ever since the Independence,” she said
