Prolonged suspension 'illegal', dissolve J-K Assembly soon: JKNPP

The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party today reiterated its demand for dissolution of the Assembly, saying it was "illegal" to keep the legislative Assembly under prolonged suspension.

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was put under suspended animation on June 20, after imposition of governor's rule in the state following collapse of the government led by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.

JKNPP chairman Harsh Dev Singh today said an atmosphere of uncertainty had been created which did not augur well for the health of the sensitive border state.

"Over a month has passed since the fall of the BJP-PDP government and imposition of governor's rule in the state but keeping the Assembly in suspended animation is against the mandate of the Constitution and existing precedents," Singh told reporters in Jammu.

"The prolonged suspension of the state assembly is illegal which defied all the precedents, constitutional provisions and plethora of judgments passed by the courts in the past," he said.

The former minister also accused the BJP of holding the constitution "hostage" through proxy for its unethical political interests.

"It (BJP) could go to any extreme to satiate its greed for power which could be gauged by their dirty skill of converting members of other parties into 'turncoats' as witnessed in other states of late," he said.

Singh said no political party or combination of parties have staked claim to form the government with rumour mills churning overtime giving rise to political instability in the state.

"None of the political parties were able to reach the magic figure of 45 required to form the government and in such a scenario keeping the Assembly in suspended animation only desecrates the sanctity of democratic institutions," the JKNPP leader said.

"With reports of horse-trading, allurements of MLAs and other unethical practices for government formation hitting headlines every other day in the state, an atmosphere of uncertainty has been created which does not augur well for the health of a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

He said while the media was abuzz with the reports of political defections on a regular basis, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti too complained of money and muscle power being used to lure MLAs to form government.