Mir not allowed to visit Srinagar: J-K Cong to CEO

The Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Tuesday claimed that despite issuance of notification for the panchayat by-election in the union territory, its chief GA Mir was not allowed to visit Srinagar to hold poll-related meetings.

The Congress leadership raised the issue at a pre-poll meeting with J&K Chief Election Officer (CEO) Shalinder Kumar.

By-election to over 12,500 panchayat seats in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in eight phases beginning March 5.

The party said Mir was not allowed to visit Srinagar to hold a poll-related meeting on Monday and described it as an insult of the Election Commission.

After the meeting with the CEO, Monga told reporters that the party would wait for the response of the Election Authority before announcing its final view with regard to the bypolls.

The Congress leaders said that due to the withdrawal of security of opposition leaders, they are not able to reach out to their cadres and people at grassroots level in the Kashmir Valley, where the vacancies constitute 95 per cent of the total seats to be filled.

He said that party participated in the panchayat and urban local body polls in December 2018 despite strong reservations and apprehensions about the conduciveness of overall scenario at that time.