Parties in Kashmir vow to challenge moves to include non-local voters

SRINAGAR: Any decision to include “non-locals” in electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir is unacceptable and would be contested by all means including in court, Nation Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Monday after a meeting of nine parties over the issue.

Abdullah, who had called the meeting, said they were united against the move to extend the voting right to “outsiders” as it would rob Jammu and Kashmir of its identity. The state's identity is about to end.

The Dogra, Kashmiri Pahari or Gujjar or Sikh, who reside here, will lose their identity. The assembly will be in the hands of the outsiders... We all oppose it and are not ready to accept it, he told reporters. The meeting was attended by the NC, Congress, PDP, Awami National Conference (ANC), Shiv Sena, CPI, CPI(M), JDU and the Akali Dal Mann.

However, Sajad Lone-led People's Conference and Altaf Bukhar's Apni Party stayed away. The BJP, meanwhile, accused the NC, PDP and other parties of spreading misleading propaganda to poison the minds of the people over the issue of inclusion of non-local voters in the revised electoral rolls in the Union Territory.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, the party's J-K unit chief Ravinder Raina said there is no question of locals or non-locals as the Constitution gives all citizens the right to vote in the country after attaining the age of 18. 

He was speaking after chairing a meeting of senior party leaders at party headquarters here to chalk out a counter-strategy against the meeting called by Abdullah in Srinagar.

Abdullah had convened the meeting after the NC and other parties objected to the remarks of the Union Territory's Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar that there will be around 25 lakh additional voters and anyone who is living ordinarily can avail the opportunity to get enlisted as a voter in J&K under the provisions of The Representation of the People Act.

The government on Saturday last issued a clarification, saying the reports of a likely addition of over 25 lakh voters after the summary revision of electoral rolls is a “misrepresentation of facts by vested interests” and the increase in numbers will be of voters who have attained the age of 18 years as of October 1, 2022, or earlier.

Dissatisfied with the clarification, the NC and other parties claimed the administration has not addressed their main concern on whether ''outsiders'' ordinarily residing in J-K will be allowed to enroll as voters.

CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami said the parties were clear that what the CEO said in the press conference and the clarification of the Information Department is unacceptable to all of us. We will explore the possibilities of seeking justice from the highest court of the country, he said.