The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Tuesday, urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir where no elected government was present for the past more than four years.
A delegation of the AAP led by Harsh Dev Singh, former minister and chairman of the party’s J&K coordination committee, submitted a memorandum to the ECI seeking early elections and restoration of democratic government in J&K at the earliest.
Addressing the Chief Election Commissioner, the memorandum said that the J&K Legislative Assembly was suspended in June 2018 due to withdrawal of support by the BJP to the PDP. Thereafter, the Opposition parties, including the National Conference, Congress and the PDP offered to form the government claiming that they had the requisite numbers. They staked claim before the then governor on the strength of their majority in the legislature, yet the governor preferred to dissolve the Assembly.
On Opposition alleging a foul play in preventing them from forming the government, the governor claimed that he never received a formal communication in this regard from these parties as his fax machine was out of order. The mode and manner in which the Legislative Assembly of J&K was dissolved will, however, remain etched in public memory as a watershed moment in the perversion of fundamental principles enshrined in our democratic jurisprudence, the memorandum said.
The AAP pointed out that the Supreme Court on various occasions has held that Assembly Elections must be held within six months in all those States/UTs where Assemblies are pre-maturely dissolved.