Low turnout, deferment of polls expose failure of J&K's PDP-BJP government: Opposition
SRINAGAR: The lowest turnout in parliamentary elections in the past five decades, killing of eight people on polling day in Srinagar and subsequent deferment of polls in south Kashmir have all put question marks on the Centre and state government's policies on Jammu & Kashmir.
"Space is shrinking for mainstream political parties. In 2014 Parliament elections, which took place in the shadow of the hanging of Afzal Guru, 26% came out to vote in Srinagar. And in two years, we have reduced that to 7%. This is unprecedented," senior National Conference leader and former minister Abdul Rahim Rather, who has contested at least seven elections, told ET.
Out of the eight people killed on Sunday, four were killed in Rather's area of Char-e-Sharief and Chadoora. Last Sunday, only 7.14% of the population came out to vote in Srinagar, with the voting marred by incidents of stone pelting.
J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother, Tasaduq Mufti, contesting the Anantnag parliamentary constituency appealed for the deferment of polls, before the election commission postponed it to May 25. The Opposition termed this indicated failure of the PDP-BJP government.
"The chief minister cannot hold elections even in her home district and have surrendered before the protestors, which will definitely embolden them," said Rather.
Opposition politicians believe that five-month long protests in the wake of the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in the summer of 2016, during which more than 95 civilians are estimated to have been killed in clashes were not ordinary protests and reflected the deterioration of law and order in J&K.
"The minimum requirement was to start a credible dialogue with all stakeholders after 2016. But the Centre continues to rely on security forces to deal with Jammu and Kashmir," said CPM legislator Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, who has never lost any assembly election since 1996.
"They cannot browbeat us all the time," he said. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik had called for boycott of the elections and were detained.
"Space is shrinking for mainstream political parties. In 2014 Parliament elections, which took place in the shadow of the hanging of Afzal Guru, 26% came out to vote in Srinagar. And in two years, we have reduced that to 7%. This is unprecedented," senior National Conference leader and former minister Abdul Rahim Rather, who has contested at least seven elections, told ET.
Out of the eight people killed on Sunday, four were killed in Rather's area of Char-e-Sharief and Chadoora. Last Sunday, only 7.14% of the population came out to vote in Srinagar, with the voting marred by incidents of stone pelting.
J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother, Tasaduq Mufti, contesting the Anantnag parliamentary constituency appealed for the deferment of polls, before the election commission postponed it to May 25. The Opposition termed this indicated failure of the PDP-BJP government.
"The chief minister cannot hold elections even in her home district and have surrendered before the protestors, which will definitely embolden them," said Rather.
Opposition politicians believe that five-month long protests in the wake of the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in the summer of 2016, during which more than 95 civilians are estimated to have been killed in clashes were not ordinary protests and reflected the deterioration of law and order in J&K.
"The minimum requirement was to start a credible dialogue with all stakeholders after 2016. But the Centre continues to rely on security forces to deal with Jammu and Kashmir," said CPM legislator Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, who has never lost any assembly election since 1996.
"They cannot browbeat us all the time," he said. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik had called for boycott of the elections and were detained.
