PDP-BJP running away from Lok Sabha by-elections: Cong

The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee today accused the state government of running away from the by-elections to the two vacant Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir valley.
"The PDP-BJP government is running away from the by-elections to the two vacant Lok Sabha seats in the valley and indulged in an illegal and partisan exercise of delimitation of Panchayats ahead of polls," JKPCC Chief G A Mir told reporters here today.
One seat of Parliament fell vacant after Mehbooba Mufti became J&K chief minister as she was the MP from the Anantnag LS seat, while the other Srinagar LS seat fell vacant when Tariq Hamid Karra quit it due to differences with PDP.

Mir, who took part in a day-long convention of NSUI at Kalu Chak on the outskirts of Jammu today, chargedthe state government of committing a fraud upon the electorate by going ahead with delimitation of Wards and Panchayats in "an illegal, arbitrary and fraudulent manner, despite objections from the entire opposition and all the stake holders."
The delimitation was conducted to manipulate the elections at the behest of ruling party members of Panchayats, he said.
The government wants to use the Panchayat election issue, as a tool to get the LS by-elections deferred again, as it is not ready to face the electoral battle, he alleged.

He said "it is totally undemocratic and unheard of in any democracy that the government and election authority went ahead with the exercise of delimitation contrary to the law and democratic norms."

"It is a fraud upon the electorate and the people in villages. It's a matter of great surprise that all objections and representations pointing out the glaring illegalities and deliberate irregularities have been ignored by the Election Authority and the government," he said.
The delegation of Congress Legislature Party of both MLAs and MLCs too had brought the matter to the notice of the governor and expressed concern over the mode and manner of the delimitation exercise, he added.

Mir said the BJP-PDP government has already weakened the Panchayati Raj Institutions by bringing undemocratic changes to the Pachayat Act and by not constituting the independent state election commission, as provided in the Act.
"Now they have indulged in this farcical exercise, which has shaken the faith of the people in fairness of any such exercise," he said.
Mir lashed out at the coalition partners alleging that they are playing with the authority and autonomy of the institution of election for petty political interests. He appealed to the governor and the election authority to check "the undemocratic working of the government."

The ECI may also see through the game plan of the coalition government and monitor the situation while reiterating that party is ready for LS by-elections as well as Panchayat elections, as and when held, he said.