Omar Abdullah welcomes poll announcement, questions administrative changes

Srinagar, Aug 16 : Soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced a three-phase Assembly election, former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Friday welcomed the decision while questioning the administrative changes in J&K.

“After 1987-88, this will be the shortest phased Assembly election held in J&K. For the political parties, this is a new experience. But the NC has been preparing for the elections for a long time. We will soon start our election campaign,” the former Chief Minister told media persons in Srinagar.

The former Chief Minister expressed reservations about the transfers and postings made by the Lt Governor (L-G) headed administration on Friday.

“The L-G belongs to the BJP. These transfers have been made to favour the ‘A’, ‘B’ or the ‘C’ team of the ruling party,” Omar Abdullah said.

He said that the Election Commissioner has laid emphasis on free and fair polls and the commission must review these transfers and if these transfer orders have made any violation of the guidelines, then the commission must put a stop to this practice.

“We will also write a detailed letter to the Election Commission,” the former Chief Minister said.

Earlier, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the J&K elections will be held in three phases: September 18, September 25 and October 1.

Counting would be held on October 4 and the entire poll process would be completed by October 6.

J&K has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the PDP-BJP coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti.

The state was brought under the Governor’s rule who later dissolved the Assembly.

On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was watered down and the state was bifurcated into two UTs of J&K and Ladakh.