Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Omar and Mehbooba request that the Election Commission refrain from delaying the elections for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat

On Friday, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and NC leader Omar Abdullah urged the Election Commission not to postpone voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency.

The former chief ministers filed an appeal after the Election Commission (EC) requested a report from Chief Electoral Officer Atal Dulloo and Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo regarding representations filed by three candidates and certain parties asking for a rescheduling of the constituency’s elections due to unfavorable weather, including snowfall on the Mughal road.

“I request that the EC refrain from taking such a move. Postponement is not being demanded by all parties. It’s strange that some of the individuals who have written to the EC are not raising any objections. Will the EC pay attention if I write to them about seats in Tamil Nadu, etc.?” he said during a Srinagar news conference.

“They have banded together against me because they do not want to see me in Parliament,” Mehbooba said while speaking to the media in the Poonch district’s Surankote sector. People are coming out to support me across party and religious lines, and as a result, they are manipulating the Election Commission to postpone and rig the results.”

The PDP leader said that she recently allowed cars to pass along the Mughal road.

“Delaying voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat is not justified. With only ten days remaining for voting, I kindly ask the Election Commission not to postpone the polls. She remarked, “This will send the wrong message and will have serious consequences,” before continuing her campaign in Mendhar town.

Mehbooba said, “We request Election Commission not to do such an adventure as the people in J-K have already suffered a lot and have little faith left in the electoral process.” She was alluding to the suspected fraud in the 1987 assembly elections that precipitated the emergence of militancy in the region.

She claimed that “they (BJP) are trying to make it stained once again” and that “you have already left the people of J-K with nothing except a vote.” Former prime minister A B Vajpayee was forced to assure the people of J-K of free and fair elections from the Red Fort’s ramparts. You’re attempting to recreate the carnage and cemetery-like conditions of 1987 in the valley.”

Mehbooba stated that in an effort to rig the elections in their favor, they first used delimitation to redefine the Anantnag parliamentary seat.

“Do they not realize that the Mughal Road is usually closed for six months? They have connected sections on both sides of Pir Panjal for the sole purpose of manipulating elections.” Nowhere else in the nation is experiencing this,” she said.

She said that the BJP is very wealthy and has the power to order helicopters to be flown in favor of its supporters. “We are the only part which lacks resources and our workers are spending from their own pockets for the past 25 days which we cannot continue for the next 20 days in case polls are postponed.”

Union Minister Jitendra Singh responded to questions on concerns about a vote delay in Anantnag-Rajouri by saying that the BJP would abide by the EC’s decision regarding the polls for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat since it is an independent body.

The final round of voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat is set on May 7. The election will determine the outcomes of 21 candidates, including Mehbooba, who is up against formidable opposition from National Conference leader and former minister Mian Altaf.

While Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party and Muhammad Saleem Parray of the DPAP are both running, the BJP has not announced a candidate and is considering endorsing a candidate who is not affiliated with the PDP, NC, or Congress.

J-K BJP chairman Ravinder Raina, Apni party president Altaf Bukhari, DPAP candidate, Peoples Conference leader Imran Reza Ansari, and two independent candidates are among those who have filed their representation with the EC.

Vikar Rasool Wani, the head of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, said that the BJP and its “B-teams” had petitioned the Election Commission since they are expected to lose badly to the INDIA alliance candidate.

As part of a sharing arrangement with the partners in the INDIA bloc, the Congress is endorsing the National Conference from the seat.

“The recent activities of the BJP and its A, B, C, and D teams do not surprise me. They have once again shown my correctness by uniting under the leadership of ‘Big Boss’ in Nagpur. They are aware that the INDIA (bloc) is winning the Rajouri-Anantnag Parliamentary Segment with a massive pounding of votes, and they would probably suffer a severe loss,” Wani said.

He said that the INDIA coalition would still “emerge victorious” in spite of their efforts to change the vote date and use every strategy.