In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference, Congress and other political parties have flayed the inclusion of non-locals in voter lists.
According to Kashmir Media Service, they were reacting after the authorities empowered tehsildars (revenue officials) to issue a certificate of residence to those residing in Jammu for over a year to enable their registration as voters.
The National Conference (NC) said the BJP is scared of the elections and knows it will lose badly. The NC in a tweet said the authorities are going ahead with their plan to add 25 lakh non-local voters in the territory and the NC will continue to oppose this move. “BJP is scared of the elections & knows it will lose badly. People of J&K must defeat these conspiracies at the ballot box”, it added.
Congress leader Vikar Rasool Wani told reporters in Jammu, “The cat is out of the bag finally and we will not allow this (giving voting rights to non-locals) to happen. We are against such a move because it is a conspiracy hatched by BJP to divest locals of their rights and control power with the support of outsiders.”
He also denounced the recent order allowing departmental stores to sell beer and said such an order should be immediately revoked to honour the religious sentiments of the people.
Terming latest order regarding inclusion of non-local voters in revised electoral rolls as arbitrary, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami in a statement in Srinagar said it is beginning of a wider plan to change electoral demographics.
He said that all parties and civil society groups must reject this arbitrary inclusion of no-locals. “BJP designs must be defeated,” he added.
Democratic Azad Party Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad in a statement in Srinagar said the order would increase social tensions in the territory.—KMS
