High on I-Day celebrations, J&K stares at long road for Assembly polls
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 20: Independence Day celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir are being talked about within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joyfully as an achievement of the abrogation of Article 370. But the Union Territory created with an Assembly in 2019 may have a long road ahead for the polls.
The Supreme Court is also currently hearing the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370. The BJP talking guns have stopped speaking on the issue of holding Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made no mention of holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in his 10th Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
“The delimitation exercise is currently underway. Subsequently, the voters’ lit will be prepared. This will require the public scrutiny, inviting objections against additions and deletions of the electorate. The exercise once completed will take Jammu and Kashmir to the stage of holding Assembly elections,” said a top ranking BJP functionary.
The claims being made by senior BJP functionaries suggest that the first major elections which may be held in Jammu and Kashmir would be the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP functionaries argued that “when the UT is already progressing on the path of normalcy, why should the current arrangement of the administration be disturbed”. Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor, is currently the administrator of J&K, which also saw an opening of cinema halls in the Kashmir valley.
The likes of Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah are hoping that the Supreme Court may bring them relief from the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370. They are also witnessing the ongoing arguments in the Supreme Court.
“More than thirty lakh genuine voters took part in the Panchayat elections in J&K. The people stood in queue outside the stadium in Srinagar to take part in the Independence Day celebrations. The people in the valley have accepted the realities post-August 5 parliamentary nod to abrogation of Article 370,” added the BJP functionary.
The Supreme Court has so far heard seven days of arguments, which examined the history of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union of India. The reorganization bill had used the enabling provision of Article 370 to delete the special clauses, while carving out two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. While J&K is a UT with Assembly, Ladakh is a centrally administered territory.
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