NC slams Guv's remarks on Srinagar mayoral elections

The National Conference Tuesday said Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik's recent remark favouring a particular individual for the post of mayor of Srinagar is shocking and puts a big question mark on the impartiality of the his office.

The party was referring to Malik's interview to NDTV in which he had hinted that a foreign-educated person was going to become the mayor of Srinagar.

"The ongoing election process is a smokescreen to hide the machinations of the governor's office to throttle the democratic institutions in the state," the National Conference alleged in a statement issued here.

The party said it's not against any person becoming the mayor, but the way the governor has expressed his intentions by hinting towards a particular individual before-hand for the mayor's post casts a shadow on the whole election process already mired in controversies.

"The councilors elected from various wards exercise their democratic right and elect a mayor after following the whole process as enshrined in the rule books.

There is already a big question mark on the fairness of ongoing elections in the valley. Adding to the confusion, the governor's remarks reveal that he has no reverence for the due process of elections, it alleged.

The party said the ongoing process has already gone farcical and proven to be a damp squib due to scanty participation of people in its first phase in the valley and the sparse number of candidates contesting the polls.

"The recent remarks, the statement reads have made it very clear that the whole process of elections is rather a gimmick and that selection has already been done in the governor's office," it alleged.