'Linking polls with plea on Art 35A disastrous idea'

Barely hours after the National Conference (NC) decided to boycott municipal and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday criticised the central government for linking the polls with the plea in Supreme Court on Article 35A.

“The central government’s plea in Supreme Court to link decision on 35A with panchayat and urban bodies elections, was a disastrous idea, which has further alienated the people and complicated the situation on ground,” Mehbooba Mufti, PDP chief and former chief minister, tweeted.

The assertions came in the backdrop of the Centre seeking to postpone a scheduled apex court hearing on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A until January next year, on the grounds that the Panchayat polls in the state would go on till December.

Earlier, the PDP chief said she was hopeful that the new Governor Satya Pal Malik would convene an all-party meeting on holding urban local body and panchayat elections in the state.

“(When I was) in government, I had called an all-party meeting to discuss ULB/Panchayat elections and the majority of the parties had opposed the holding of elections at that time. We expected that the governor too would have called an All Party meet where everyone would put forward their viewpoint,” she wrote on the party’s official twitter handle.