Former Chief Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) for postponing the poll for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency and called it a “planned conspiracy” to deprive the migratory Gujjar community from voting.

The ECI had on Tuesday evening deferred polling for the seat from 7 May to 25 May on the plea of BJP and its friendly parties that the Mughal road was shut due to snow and landslides and as such it was not possible for the candidates to reach the newly included Rajouri and Poonch districts in the Anantnag constituency.

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National Conference (NC) chief Dr Farooq Abdullah and the PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti, who is also the party’s candidate for Anantnag seat, today reached Rajouri and Poonch for their respective campaigns.

The NC candidate Mian Altaf accompanied Dr Farooq Abdullah. NC, PDP and Congress had opposed the plea for postponing the polls.

Dr Abdullah said in Rajouri that the NC enjoys massive support of the people.

NC candidate and former minister Mian Altaf Ahmed also took potshots at the ECI and claimed he had not seen such an example of the deferring of polls. “It is an undemocratic step,” Altaf told reporters.

Mehbooba Mufti, who posted on X her picture in a tea stall in the Kali Dhaar area of Rajouri, accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of filing a “cooked report” to justify the postponement of the election.

“They (ECI) extended the election date, making it difficult for me to campaign. The poor party workers are paying from their pockets and campaigning for me. Now they will have to work for 25 more days,” Mehbooba told the people during a roadshow on the outskirts of Rajouri.

Mehbooba emphasised the significance of the current election, saying, “It is not meant for power or roads. It is about the decision taken in 2019, which we believe was wrong.”

“This election is against the central government’s decision and sends a clear message that the decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two Union territories has not been accepted by the people,” she added.

“Our identity, our land, our jobs, our sand — they want to snatch away everything from us. The Jammu and Kashmir people will not accept that,” she said.

National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah, in an election rally in south Kashmir, asserted that the ECI’s poll deferment move regarding Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary seat was aimed to deprive nomadic Gujjar and Bakkerwal communities from the right to vote.

Omar said that the decision of the ECI is wrong. “This request for postponing polling came in from the BJP who haven’t fielded any candidate. This appears to be a planned conspiracy.”

“The decision of ECI taken yesterday was a glaring example of conspiracy. The commission was silent when incessant rains lashed J&K and when favourable weather conditions restored they rescheduled the polling. This was aimed to deprive the nomadic community of Pir Panjal region from the right to vote,” Omar asserted.