Municipal elections an exercise in waste,  shadow on roots of democracy:Ishfaq Jabbar

NC to sack members who contest, ULB polls

Srinagar October 13 (PR):  National Conference district president and
MLA Ganderbal has maintained that the party will abide by its decision of not participating in the upcoming elections.

He said that in wake of the Government of India and State Governments ambiguous stand vis-a-vis Article 35- A defence, we have asked it’s members not to participate in the elections as a mark of prorest.

While addressing district body members Sheikh Ishfaq said that any member found participating in the ULB polls will be sacked, “We have asked every member of the party not to contest or participate in  the ULB  Elections”.

He said that the objectives of devolution of powers can’t be achieved at a time when people of Jammu and Kashmir are fraught with efforts being made to muzzle their special political identity by fiddling with Article 35-A and other rights guaranteed under the constitution.

Countering the allegations of fielding proxies, the NC MLA has said: “Had we contested, the BJP would not have had an unopposed victory.”

“General masses have rejected these polls in Kashmir. That is why candidates are winning unopposed,” said Ishfaq.

Reacting to the unopposed win of the BJP, he took a dig on the approach of the saffron party and termed it as show-off for the upcoming general elections in 2019.

“The approach of the BJP has put democracy in danger in Jammu & Kashmir,” he added.

National Conference district president,  said that it is not easy for any party, whose very existence depends on participation in a democratic process, to call for a boycott, but “the situation and the government’s response to the pleas in apex court to the Article 35-A” of the Constitution, which is facing a legal challenge, has “forced the core group” of his party to come to the boycott decision.

The government is playing with the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the elections were held even as it was known that last time, there was only 7 percent turnout on Srinagar parliamentary seat. The elections were not held in Anantang last year even as the campaign was run and nomination papers were filed, this time polls were held to mislead that there was no problem in Kashmir,” said ishfaq.

“The NC has not made any surrender before anybody and that it has lost scores of its functionaries since the onset of militancy. History bears witness to the fact that the NC has never been an aggressor. It has suffered and suffered fatally during the last three decades,” he said.

There is already a big question mark on the fairness of the ongoing elections in the J&K, adding to the confusion, the governor’s remarks reveal that he has no reverence for the due process of elections,” it added.

Ishfaq said that number of BJP candidates for civic body polls in Jammu and Kashmir were declared elected unopposed, saying it was unheard of in a democratic polity.

“BJP is itself in liaison with former extremists and thus sans the moral authority to make uncouth and false allegations against the NC. Most candidates that BJP has given tickets to in upcoming ULB (urban local bodies) elections come from fringe and have shady backgrounds. And they have the audacity to question our integrity,” NC District President & MLA Ganderbal Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar  said in a statement.