Slamming government authorities for giving conflicting signals on the enrolment of non-locals as voters in Jammu and Kashmir, the Opposition parties, which met on Saturday at the residence of National Conference chief and MP Dr Farooq Abdullah here, decided to constitute a committee to decide on the further course of action against the move.
This was the first such Opposition meeting in Jammu in which all Opposition parties, except the BJP, were invited.
Briefing media persons after the meeting, Dr Abdullah said that different claims were being made by the authorities on the sensitive issue.
The Election Commission initially said that 20 to 25 lakh non-local voters are expected to be added to the electoral list. After the controversy broke out on the issue, the Election Commission said that around 1.5 lakh new voters might be included as voters, he said.
He said that the meeting of opposition parties was held to deliberate against the inclusion of outsiders as voters.
Dr Abdullah said that in J&K, it has become difficult to believe in any authority. The then Governor Satya Pal Malik in 2019 assured that nothing will be done with the special status of the state but Article 370 was abrogated and J&K was split into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.
Referring to the last year’s meeting of all Kashmir based political parties convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he said he would remove ‘Dil Ki Doori’ and ‘Dilli Ki doori’, Dr Abdullah said that not a single step has so far been taken in this direction. Those under detention have not yet been released.
Describing the inclusion of outsiders in the voter list as an attack on the rights of the people of J&K, Dr Abdullah said: “We will resist the move.”
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, PCC chief Vikar Rasool Wani, working president of PCC Raman Bhalla, CPM leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and leaders of Shiv Sena, ANC, Akali Dal- Amritsar and Janata Dal –U were among those who attended the meeting.