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| Parties favour early Assembly polls | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Mar 2
Even though 2008 Assembly elections are far away but poll fever is catching up fast and different political parties are joining the chorus of holding early polls in the state between May- June 2008 to end the current state of political uncertainty.
Raising the demand for preponement of Assembly polls Provincial President of the National Conference, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, said here today "we are ready for early elections in the state." He said we are determined to expose the Cong-PDP coalition and beat them in the poll arena. He said opposition party cannot fix the calendar of the polls adding that the schedule for the Assembly election has to be fixed by the Chief Election Commission in consultation with the state Government. He said that since the ruling coalition had failed to deliver the goods it was better if people were given a chance to elect a new Government.
Even PDP leaders are in favour of the preponement of the Assembly poll.General Secretary of the PDP,Mr Nizam-ud-Din Bhat,said that May-July "is the ideal time for holding the election."Explaining the need for preponing the poll Mr Bhat said "from June end till the first week of October people and the Government,besides the security forces,will remain engaged in the month of Ramzan,followed by Id-ulFitr,two month long annual Amarnath pilgrimage."He stated that "we do not want the election process to be held during the month of fasting and during the Amarnath pilgrimage when security forces remain tied to the duty of providing security cover to pilgrims right from Jammu to the holy cave in eastern Kashmir."
Mr Bhat said that in order to ensure maximum participation of people in the poll process the election schedule should be fixed between June and July when majority of farmers are not engaged in farming practices.
President of the state unit of the BJP,Mr Ashok Khajuria,said here today "we not only want the state to go in for early election but we favour that the state be placed under the Governor's rule."He said that "in order to ensure free and fair election the entire poll process be held under the Governor's rule."In this connection he referred to the 1977 election and said that the poll was free and fair to a large extent because it was held under the Governor's rule.
His party colleague,Dr Nirmal Singh,said that "besides favouring an early poll we want the term of the Assembly to be reduced from six to five years as is the case in the country."He said that five years are enough for a Government to fulfill its commitments.He said that the successive ruling parties had "misused" Article 370,that gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir,by having the Assembly term fixed for six years.
However,leader of Panthers Party in the Assembly,Mr Harsh Dev Singh,said "no doubt we are for early election,I do not find any scope for preponing the poll because the ruling coalition has nothing to sell to the electorate."He said that the opposition campaign against failure of the Chief Minister to check corruption has shaken the base of the Congress and the PDP. He too wanted that the term of the Assembly be reduced from six to five years and added "I have repeatedly tried to table a bill for amending the constitution so that the term of the Assembly was reduced but the successive Governments sabotaged my plan."
Interaction with senior political leaders of different parties indicated that all major mainstream political parties had started gearing up for an early poll. Besides the ruling Congress and the PDP, the National Conference, the BJP and the Panthers Party have started what can be called pre-poll campaign. While the Panthers Party and the BJP plan to go it alone in the battle of the ballot the PDP and the Congress, which have also embarked on pre-poll campaign, have yet to decide whether the two will contest the next election in alliance with each other or under some electoral understanding or separately. Nizam-ud-Din Bhat said the matter has to be decided by the Congress high command the PDP leadership in Delhi.
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