Congress welcomes EC decision of holding polls on time in J-K

Welcoming the Election Commission's decision for holding the assembly elections on time in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday stated that his party will try its best to emerge as the single largest party and downplayed of any scope of the BJP forming government in the state.

'I want to congratulate the Election Commission for announcing the elections for J and K and Jharkhand. As a matter of fact I and my party were the first to demand the election as back as last month on 27th of September," he told ANI here.

"Stressing on the need to have an elected government in the state to carry out reconstruction work in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "We wanted the elections to be held as soon as possible, because the type of devastation which has taken place across the state both in Jammu and particularly in Kashmir."

"To handle that situation and to undertake that reconstruction work we must have an elected government which has the confidence of the people and which has an authority to deal with the situation. To my mind it is only an elected government, new government which can have an authority undertake massive reconstruction programme," he added.

"So I think keeping that in mind my party was in favour of holding the elections and subsequently other political parties also joined us and I am very happy that the Election Commission has come to the conclusion to hold elections on time," he further added.

The Congress leader also discounted any scope for the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) forming government in the state.

"Well our party, the Congress party will try its level best to form its government, if not, we will try our level best to be the single largest party. In so far as the BJP is concerned, there is no scope for BJP in Jammu and Kashmir and there is no scope of Modi wave in Jammu and Kashmir," Azad said.

The Election Commission on Saturday announced that elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will be held in five-phases beginning from November 25.

The elections in the two states will take place on November 25, December 2, December 9, December 14 and December 20.

The counting of votes in both states will take place on December 23.

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly comprises 87 members. Presently, the state is being run by a National Conference-Congress alliance. The term of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly expires on January 19 next year.