Srinagar, Nov 15: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that the delay in holding ULB elections is because the BJP is fearful of an adverse outcome and an imminent defeat.
Omar said this while addressing a one-day workers’ convention in Pattan, the party said in a statement.
“The ULB elections considered as a bellwether for forthcoming Parliament elections and an imminent adverse outcome for BJP and its local minions will lay bare that the sentiment on the ground is against the BJP and its A, B, C and D teams,” Omar said, lamenting the inordinate delay in the holding of ULB elections. He further added that the “debacle would also be a resounding defeat of their propaganda on the revocation of Art 370”.
On the occasion, the party VP welcomed a number of socio-political activists into the party fold, hoping that the party will benefit from their experience in public life & social activism, the statement said.
“In a democracy, everything hinges on elections but no elections have taken place in J&K for so many years,” he said adding that the ruling BJP was in no mood to even cede low-level decision-making spaces like ULB bodies for local people to let go of having a duly elected legislature.
Omar added, “LG sahib knew that the tenure of ULB bodies in J&K was nearing its end, so why wasn’t the delimitation process carried out in advance? The reality is different, and it has nothing to do with the delimitation process. The BJP does experiments only to get the results of its choice. Half of the work was done by the party through delimitation but even that work is now slipping out of its hands.”
The NC leader said he failed to understand that when he, despite being a former Chief Minister, and other top politicians were spending days and nights in detention in 2019, how come Altaf Bukhari was enjoying “freedom”? “Please tell us this secret, how and why you (Altaf Bukhari) were free?” he asked.
