‘Last time this happened in 1992’: Omar on Jammu and Kashmir assembly missing Prez poll

Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said that after the Independence of the country, only for the second time assembly members from J&K can’t take part in the presidential elections scheduled for next month.

Earlier in 1992, when militancy was at its peak and J&K was under Governor’s rule, the erstwhile state had no assembly then so legislators from J&K couldn’t participate in the elections for the country’s President.

“For only the 2nd time since 1947, J&K will have no assembly members to vote in the Presidential election. The last time this happened was during the dark days of the early 90s, 1992 to be precise,” tweeted former J&K chief minister and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah.

For the last four years, J&K is without any assembly as the elections haven’t been conducted. After the revocation of Article 370, the BJP government said that after the completion of the fresh delimitation process, the elections will be held in the state. Last month, a three-member delimitation commission submitted its report to the government in which seven new seats were allocated to J&K, six to Jammu and one to Kashmir. Now politicians are waiting for the holding of elections, though recently defence minister Rajnath Singh hinted that elections could be held by the end of this year or early next year.

However, five MPs, three from the National Conference and two from the BJP, could participate in the presidential elections. Earlier, the joint opposition had also proposed the name of NC president Farooq Abdullah as the consensus candidate of the opposition. However, Abdullah, 84, declined the offer from the opposition leadership. Now former union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the opposition candidate, while Draupadi Murmu, former Jharkhand governor, was announced as the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for the presidential polls.