Early Times Report
Jammu, May 8: Leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP are facing a difficult task as the central leadership of the party has directed them to ensure maximum participation of displaced Kashmiri Pandit votes on the three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir Valley.
Highly placed sources said that for the last eight years, the BJP has utilized all its resources to ensure 100 percent participation of displaced Kashmir Pandits in the electoral exercise to play a deciding role.
Not only the local leaders have been asked to ensure 100 percent voting of living in different areas of Jammu and Kashmir, they are also directed to mobilize migrant voters living in different parts of the country.
“As the party did not field its candidate on three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir Valley, most of the migrant voters are showing a lackluster response of the ongoing campaign”, a BJP leader told The Early Times.
Wishing for anonymity the leader said that displaced Kashmiri Pandits living in different parts of the country are not convinced by the decision of the high command not to field candidates on three seats of Kashmir.
Important to mention here that in a major decision to facilitate BJP's central leadership has directed local leaders to ensure maximum participation of displaced KP voters on the three LS seats of Kashmir.
The BJP has utilized all its resources to ensure 100 percent participation of displaced KPs.
Kashmiri Pandits living in different parts of the country are not convinced by the party's decision not to field candidates in Kashmir.
The Election Commission of India has abolished the cumbersome procedure of filling Form-M for the displaced people from Kashmir.
Additionally, for the migrants residing outside Jammu and Udhampur (who will continue to submit Form M), ECI has authorized the self-attestation of the certificate appended with Form M, thus removing the hassle of getting this certificate attested by the Gazetted Officer. The decision was taken by the Commission after a meeting on April 12 chaired by CEC Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.
Various representations were received from several Kashmiri Migrant groups projecting the difficulties they face in filling of Form-M every election which brings a lot of hassle to them in exercising their right to franchise.
The Form-M procedure subjects these voters to additional bureaucratic hurdles compared to other voters and also the process of filling out the Form-M is often complex and cumbersome, requiring specific documentation, proof of migration status and attestation by a gazetted officer. | 