Srinagar: People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party of colluding to “fix the match” during elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir last year.
While the ruling NC had won three seats, the BJP managed to secure one seat even though it did not have the required numbers.
At least four non-BJP MLAs had voted for BJP candidate Sat Sharma, who got 32 votes against the party strength of 28 MLAs.
Lone himself had abstained from voting, a move which also benefited the BJP candidate.
“That NC did not insist on the appointment of agents, and the PDP simply did not appoint agents, hints at a much bigger spread in match-fixing,” Lone said in a statement here.
He was referring to an RTI reply suggesting that the PDP had not appointed a chief agent for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Lone, who is MLA from Handwara, said the RTI reply indicated that at least three parties — BJP, NC and PDP — colluded during the Rajya Sabha polls.
“BJP could not have won the Rajya Sabha seat without the active support of NC and PDP,” he added.
Recalling the 2015 Rajya Sabha polls, Lone said the People’s Conference did not have a candidate, but the then ruling alliance had asked his party to appoint an agent of their choice.
“I remember when I cast my vote in the Rajya Sabha elections in 2015. Our party did not have a candidate, but the ruling alliance (PDP-BJP) requested us to have an agent of their choice,” he said.
Lone said the person appointed as agent was a non-MLA who proceeded to verify his vote and that of his fellow MLA, Bashir Ahmed Dar.
Lone questioned the conduct of both the NC and PDP, expressing serious doubts over their claimed ignorance of election rules. “It seems highly improbable that the PDP or NC did not know the rules,” he said.
