Srinagar August 19 (KNS): People from J&K State residing in various states of the country since decades & having purchased/ rented houses or flats across colonies throughout the 29 states do not enjoy any rights by which they can become voters of that particular constituency they are residing at. Now contrary to this the ECI stating that any outsider residing in J&K as a student, business person, state employee, labourers, even beggars living under temporary accommodation can vote & fight elections on a party ticket of his/ her choice or as an independent candidate for the Assembly Elections in the J&K UT. Can such a bizarre thing happen anywhere else in the country, asked ANC Sr VP Mr Muzzafar Shah while addressing the members of the media at ANC headquarters in Srinagar today on the ECI decision to enrolment of other state voters in the J&K voter list.
According to a statement issued to Kashmir News Service (KNS), Shah further stated that various provisions of the Representation of People’s Act 1950 makes it ample clear that every Tom, dick & Harry cannot be enlisted as a voter in an Assembly Constituency on the sweet decision of an Electoral Officer. The job of determining an Ordinary Resident of an Assembly Constituency cannot be left to the pure decision of a BLO. The clause (1) of section 20 of the Representation of the People’s Act 1950 clearly states that a person shall not be deemed as an Ordinary Resident enlisted in a Constituency on the ground only, that he owns or is in possession of a dwelling house therein. Similarly, Section 18 of the Act says that no person can be registered in more than One Constituency in the Country, the ANC Sr VP said.
Propriety demands that Govt of India should have waited for the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court & then gone ahead with the earlier Delimitation exercise & now this exercise. Will this also mean that even a tourist residing in Kashmir for more than three months or so can be conferred with voting rights?
Can a person be registered at two places simultaneously for voting in the Assembly Elections in the country, asked the ANC Sr VP?
How does ECI or the BJP know that 25 lac persons will be registered when the exercise is yet to begin?
Mr Muzzafar Shah further stated that this exercise being attempted by the BJP clearly signals that their Kashmir policy has turned into a disaster & the reports given to their top leadership have reported a rout for the BJP in both regions of J&K, hence this shameful, illegal & unconstitutional attempt at disenfranchising the people of J&K.
We as people of Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh stand along one another in defeating this sinister design of the forces bent upon wrecking the fundamentals of the democratic & a secular India, choosing J&K as their springboard fraught with dangers of huge damage to the fabric of a Secular & a Pluralistic society of the country.
The BJP has to be stopped & for this Unity is Supreme, said the ANC Sr VP.(KNS)