Srinagar, March 26: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday termed the upcoming polls a defining moment for the future of Jammu and Kashmir and said that various attempts are being made to prevent people from exercising their franchise.
According to a statement issued here, soon after PDP leader Aga Syed Mohsin filed his nomination as a PDP candidate from Srinagar parliamentary constituency, a meeting of PDP’s Zonal presidents and assembly segment incharges was held in the party head office here in which several leaders took part to discuss the poll campaign.
Speaking on the occasion, senior PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar said the PDP has advantage over other parties as its candidate has clean reputation and brings freshness which is very rare in current Srinagar contest. “One contestant who has the distinction of being the senior most politician in the state, is going in the election with a chargesheet of swindling money which was meant for the youth to play cricket. Others are proclaimed bank defaulters, tax evaders and encroachers. The choice for the candidates should be clear for the voters now,” Akhtar said in his speech.
He added that if Farooq Abdullah gets elected again, he will be vulnerable to all kinds of manipulation. “When he was Chief Minister of the state with a record number of sixty MLAs, he gave away state’s interests, importing POTA, selling water resources, unleashing the reign of terror by introducing Ikhwan in Kashmir and made catch and kill a normal routine. At present, Farooq Abdullah is extremely weak on personal front and he will be vulnerable to all kinds of pressures. People have to be wary of that,” Akhtar said.
Expressing serious concern over the clustering of polling stations, he said that it seems that this is being done to safeguard the interests of the BJP and its allies. “Because they have recently tasted blood, having their own municipal councils and corporations in Kashmir where they hardly have any voters,” Akhtar said, adding that clustering of polling stations is actually aimed to restrict voters because they have made the voters vulnerable to threats and dangers while making them walk even four to five kilometres to vote.
He added that while government is making the machines and the polling staff secure, it is ironically exposing the people who want to vote in spite of trying circumstances to greater dangers. “Why cannot it be done as according to the previous practice. It seems that this is being done to safeguard the interests of the BJP and its allies because they have recently tasted blood, having their own municipal councils and corporations in Kashmir where they hardly have any voters,” Akhtar said.
The PDP leader added that people have to be wary about it and the election commission has to take note of this. “We have already lodged a complaint in Election Commission of India but unfortunately there is no response so far from the administration which makes the whole exercise suspect”
