SRINAGAR: National Conference vice-president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday expressed dismay over the upcoming Panchayat polls.
“An election which won't see people's participation is considered to be an election by Centre, what can we say?” said Abdullah.
“We haven't asked people to not participate or boycott the elections, we have just said that our party won't take part in it,” he later clarified.
Earlier, Abdullah took a dig at BJP president Amit Shah over his remarks that the party would remain in power for the next 50 years. "If there's one thing I know about voters it's that they hate being taken for granted & almost always punish arrogance," Omar wrote on Twitter.
“The Lok Sabha seat vacated by @MehboobaMufti is longest delayed by-poll in the country in the last two decades. It amazes me how the BJP is able to gloss over their abject failure to manage things in J&K. Even the national opposition has failed to hold them to account,” he said in another tweet.
Both the National Conference and People's Democratic Party (PDP) have decided to boycott the upcoming election to panchayat and urban local bodies.
The parties are seeking clarification in the centre's position on Article 35-A, which gives special rights to the people in the state and bars outsiders from owning immovable property.
The Supreme Court had on August 31 deferred the hearing on a bunch of petitions challenging Article 35A of the Constitution, as the Centre had urged the court to take up the matter after panchayat elections in the state.
With agency input
