AAP submits memo to ECI, seeks early assembly polls in J&K

Jammu, Nov 29: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi seeking early elections and restoration of democratic government in Jammu and Kashmir.
A deputation of AAP leaders led by Harsh Dev Singh, former minister and chairman of AAP’s SCC submitted the memorandum to ECI.
The memorandum addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner stated: “Democracy continues to be delayed and denied in J&K on one pretext or the other in contravention of the spirit of the constitution and the ‘obiter dicta’ and rulings of the Apex Court of the country.”
“The Supreme Court on varied occasions has held that assembly elections must be held within six months in all those States/UTs where assemblies are pre-maturely dissolved. The Supreme Court has again observed that it is the people who eventually suffer in the absence of an elected representative to espouse their cause. Denying democratic government is a punishment to the people, as observed by the top court as well,” the memorandum reads.
It reads that it is shocking that the assembly elections continue to be “denied in J&K on flimsy grounds only to enable the BJP to run the affairs of government in J&K through its chosen ones.
“With the people having been deprived of popular rule and their right to have an elected government of their own, the onus also lay on the ECI and Delimitation Commission to explain and justify their role as autonomous bodies.”
“It is now being believed that BJP may never allow elections in J&K as long as it remains in power. It is high time therefore that ECI prevailed so as to save the constitution and democratic rights of the people of J&K,” the memorandum added.