Election Commission manages to find new excuses to delay J&K polls: Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: The Election Commission seems to be in no hurry to conduct the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and manages to find “new excuses to delay” the elections, National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said on Wednesday.

“When asked about assembly elections in J&K, the chief election commissioner acknowledged a ‘vacuum that needs to be filled’. Yet surprisingly the @ECISVEEP seems to be in no hurry to conduct elections, on the contrary they manage to find new excuses to delay polls,” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

He was referring to the comments made by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar at a presser in New Delhi called to announce the Karnataka poll dates.

Responding to a question on the fresh special summary revision of electoral rolls in the Union territory, the CEC said, “But nonetheless, it does not disturb the scheduled part, the conduct part that depends on various other factors which we will come back to you. We are aware that there is a vacuum that needs to be filled.” Abdullah said it has been eight years since the last assembly elections were conducted in J-K, and five years since it had an elected government.

“It’s plainly obvious the BJP in J&K is terrified of facing the people but it isn’t the job of the Election Commission to give the BJP a shield to cower behind,” the former chief minister said.