Srinagar: Amid controversy over registering outsiders as electors for Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, mainstream political parties except for BJP, Peoples Conference and Apni Party, held an All Party Meeting at National Conference president Farooq Abdullah's residence here on Monday.
Among other mainstream parties, the meeting was attended by the Shiv Sena unit of Jammu and Kashmir as well. The participants included People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, CPIM leader M Y Tarigami, Shiv Sena JK president Manish Sawhney, Awami National Conference vice president Muzaffar Shah, J&K Congress president Viqar Rasool and working president Raman Bhalla.
At the end of the meeting, Farooq Abdullah addressed a press conference saying that granting voting rights to outsiders in Jammu and Kashmir will pave way for outsiders into the J&K assembly. "Granting voting rights in J&K will end the identity of Jammu and Kashmir. Assembly will be in the hands of outsiders which will deprive us," he said. "Why have they chosen J&K only? Why haven't they chosen Sikkim for it," he asked.
Shiv Sena J&K president Manish Sawhney said that they have come together to help people despite their ideologies. "Jammu & Kashmir is suffering and they have to work to end the miseries of common masses," said Sahni, who belongs to the Uddhav Thackeray camp.
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Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone didn't participate in the meeting saying that he didn't want to be a "point scorer". "If something concrete comes out of the All Parties meeting, we will support it," he said, adding that The Representation of the Peoples Act "is not against us but the intentions of the government are," he said in a press conference which he held an hour before the All Parties Meeting.
Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari also didn't participate in the meeting, hinting that he was satisfied with the clarification given by the government on the electors issue. Meanwhile, PDP also took out a protest march in Jammu against the inclusion of non-local voters in the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier this month, Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar said that J&K is likely to get around 25 lakh additional voters, including outsiders, after the special summary revision of electoral rolls was held for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370.
