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| PDP favours early poll others Governor's rule | | | Gareeb Dass
Jammu | June 23
If it were in the hands of the PDP it would have gone for an early Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir.Why does it favour preponement of the poll? Two factors seem to have prompted the PDP leadership to wish for advancing the election schedule.First,it seems to have felt inconvenienced by playing a second fiddle to the congress.It wishes to get at least simply majority in the Assembly which could enable it to form the Government on its own.
Secondly the PDP leadership by now has realised that its campaign against the trnser of the forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board at Baltal and against the two-month duration for the yatra has smoothened the road for its success in the election.No doubt this campaign has sqeezed its base in the Jammu region,it has strengthened its position in the Kashmir valley which has 46 Assembly constituencies against 37 in the Jammu province.Even if the PDP had not campaigned against the transfer of land to the Board its area of influence was mianly confined to the Kashmir valley notwithstanding its ability to register its presence in Poonch,Rajouri and Doda districts besides some pockets of R.S.Pora sector.
A senior PDP leader,wishing to remain unidentified,supports the idea of holding an early poll in the state.He admits that a lot of controversy has been generated over the transfer of land to the Shrine Board and over the threat to the eco system in the mountain belt by the deluge of pilgrims to the holy cave.He believes that the controversy will vanish like water bubble if the mainstream political parties are give a chance,earlier than the schedule,to go to the people and seek their mandate.While favouring Mufti Mohd.Sayeed's plea for cancellation of the land transfer order he says the early poll alone can settle the dust.
But there are a number of practical difficulties in preponing the e;lection.First,more than 10,000 security personnel have been deployed for ensuring incident free Amarnath pilgrimage which is to end on August 16.As such the Government will not have as many security personnel at its disposal as are need for ensuring free and fair poll even if the centre sends 25 additional companies of paramilitary forces.Besides this the month of holy Ramzan is to end by the end of September.In such case vigorous pre-poll campaign is not possible during the month of fasting.Another fctor that may not allow the Election Commission to order early poll is that till date the electoral rolls have neither been revised nor updated.The commitment of the Commission to issue photo identity cards atleast to one member in a family has not been implemented so far.It may take another two to three months for completing this exercise.
The mood in the Government circles and among the traders,hoteliers,houseboat owners and transporters in the Kashmir valley and to some extent in Jammu is upbeat over the heavy influx of tourists in the scenic vale.The heavy tourist season is expected to end by the end of June.The Government does not want to take ny step which could cause lot of inconvenience to the tourists who,at present,have to take on rent rooms in private residential houses in Srinagar for accommodation.Authorities say that the current tourists traffic has been the heaviest since 1989 when the militancy related violence had wrecked tourism which otherwise has been the backbone of the state's economy.Hence majority of people in Kashmir may not favour early elections.
Yes there are other political parties,including the BJP and the Panthers Party,that that believe the preponement of the poll may not settle the dust raised by some organisations campaigning against the transfer of land to the shrine Board.Leaders of these organisations,including Ashok Khajuria and Harsh Dev Singh, suggest that the immediate way out of the political fuss was to place Jammu and Kashmir under the Governor's rule.They favour that the election also be held under the Governor's rule as it could ensure free and fair poll process.Their another plea is that since the next poll results was likely to throw up a hung Assembly warranting the formation of a coalition Government the three-year long conflict between the Congress and the PDP may not end by preponing the poll.They also have fears that the ruling coalition may succeed in tampering with the voters choice and hence it was the need of the hour to hold the next poll under the Governor's rule. |
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