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Jammu, May 4 The order of the Election Commission for registering a criminal case of intimidation of voters by Ms Mehbooba Mufti, PDP chief and daughter of Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed, has come as a shot in the arm of the National Conference.
NC will join third front, says
Farooq
PDP aiming at ‘selective turnout’, says NC
Omar to change poll agent
Tarigami wants poll staff
shifted
Darbar moves to Srinagar
today
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NC welcomes EC decision on
Mehbooba
Jammu, May 4 The order of the commission has come on the eve of the polling for the crucial Anantnag Lok Sabha seat where Ms Mufti is contesting the election. The NC had earlier threatened to pull out of the election in case the EC did not take action against Ms Mufti. Mr Omar Abdullah, President of the NC, while welcoming the decision of the EC, described it as a “step in the right direction”. He alleged that Ms Mufti was misusing her position of being daughter of the Chief Minister for intimidating the voters. Mr Abdullah said the EC has upheld the bonafides of the woman voter whom Ms Mufti had tried to intimidate and prevent her from voting. He said like Baramulla and Srinagar, the ruling PDP would try to rig the polls in Anantnag tomorrow but NC activists were being asked to be vigilant. Ms Mufti kicked up the controversy when she entered a polling booth in
Srinagar on April 26 and allegedly lifted the veil (burqa) of a woman voter. The NC not only filed a complaint of intimidation of voters against her with the EC, but has also made it a poll issue by describing the incident as an insult on women. The incident has also annoyed a section of the PDP that has pointed out that Ms Mufti had no business lifting the veil of a woman in a public place. This was also against the religion, they claim. While entering a polling booth in the stronghold of the NC and indulging in the objectionable incident, Ms Mufti perhaps was unaware that she would be landing herself in an embarrassing situation. Mr Omar Abdullah, contested the election from the Srinagar constituency. Certain NC leaders said a small number of electorate had turned out for polling because of the call for boycott of the elections given by the separatist and militant outfits and the actions of Ms Mufti further created a scare among the voters. With election for the Anantnag seat tomorrow, polling for all three Lok Sabha seats of the Kashmir valley would be completed. Polling for the two seats of Udhampur and Ladakh would be held on May 10. The Mufti would start campaigning for the Congress candidate, Mr Lal Singh, who is also the Health Minister, in the Muslim-dominated areas of Doda district on May 6. Mr Lal Singh is facing Mr Chaman Lal Gupta of the BJP and
Mr Najeeb Surawardhy, besides a rebel of the coalition, Mr Bhim Singh of the Panthers Party. The NC patron,
Dr. Farooq Abdullah, has already started campaigning for his party candidate in the Udhampur constituency. |
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NC will join third front, says Farooq
Jammu, May 4 Addressing a series of election meetings in Hiranagar and Kathua, he said the process for the formation of the third front had been started. Consultations were on with the INLD, SAD and BSP in this regard, he added. “We will not join the Congress-led front or the NDA but will support those forces which are committed to solve the basic problems of the masses,” he said, adding that the third front would play a decisive role in the formation of the next government at the Centre. Accusing the PDP of misusing the state apparatus to “terrorise” NC workers, Dr Abdullah apprehended that the PDP might resort to booth-capturing in Anantnag tomorrow. He claimed that the
PDP-led coalition government would collapse without completing its full term due to infighting within the constituents. —
PTI |
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PDP aiming at ‘selective turnout’, says NC
Srinagar, May 4 Addressing mediapersons here today, Dr Mehboob Beigh, NC candidate for Anantnag, threatened to approach the Election Commission to countermand the elections if such steps were taken. He said this would be a “murder of the democratic process” and should be prevented at all costs. Dr Mehboob Beigh, MLA, and provincial president of the NC, held that such an attempt would be disastrous and would drift the people of Kashmir. The NC leader alleged that the PDP had already identified certain areas and booked vehicles for “mobile voters” for bogus voting. Referring to the boycott of elections, Dr Beigh said it had been considered even as a constitutional right but added that the people “should not be forced to come out for voting”. He, however, cautioned against manipulating “forced voting” in some pockets of Anantnag and sought measures to prevent such attempts. About his assets and properties, he said: “My tenure as MLA and minister has not contributed to any of these but whatever I have, has come to me by inheritance”. |
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Omar to change poll agent
Srinagar, May 4 “I am changing my chief poll agent Sagar following direction from the Election Commission,” he told reporters here. He said the EC had directed all parties not to appoint anybody having security guards as agent for any contesting candidate. “We honoured the EC’s direction and hope it will force other parties to do so,” he said. However, he said it was “very difficult” to find any one having no security guards because of the threat perception. “Mr Sagar, who is also a former minister, has more security guards as compared to our other leaders,” he conceded, adding that they would try to find a person having just one or two special police officers to replace him. —
UNI |
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Tarigami wants poll staff shifted
Srinagar, May 5 “The Noorabad Assembly segment being represented by Agriculture Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar has been allowed to depute polling staff from Baramula district from the Agriculture Department to influence the voters,” Mr Tarigami, the party state secretary, said in a complaint to the state Chief Electoral Officer. This is deliberate attempt to hoodwink the electorate, he said and demanded immediate action including shifting of the poll staff from the Assembly segment. —
PTI |
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Darbar moves to Srinagar
today
Srinagar, May 4 With this the office of the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and Commissioner-cum-Secretaries will open here tomorrow after the six months of winter in Jammu. This is a bi-annual exercise in practice for the past over a century so as to reach out to the people in the two regions of the state equally. Adequate security arrangements have been made ahead of the opening of Civil Secretariat which is an additional exercise as the administration has already been engaged in providing tight security arrangements for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in the state. The Chief Minister will be presented a guard of honour at the secretariat tomorrow morning before the office work commences. The capital city also received a face-lift over the past few days, particularly along the roads leading to the Civil Secretariat. The government has occupied several hotels in the civil lines area to accommodate employees belonging to the Jammu region, as also the Kashmiri Pandit migrants. These employees are being ferried in government buses from the hotels to their offices in the secretariat and other locations in the summer capital city. While the employees belonging to Kashmir division have already shifted to their places after spending the winter months in Jammu, those belonging to the Jammu region have arrived here by this evening. |
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