By NAK,
Jammu: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has criticized the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir, for removing names of thousands Kashmiri migrant voters from the voter lists of the valley.
Addressing media, state secretary and Incharge Kashmir province Charanjit Singh Khalsa and BJP Migrant Cell convenor Hira Lal Chatta at Jammu here today also expressed concern for introducing ‘M Form and Postal Form’ which, according to them, has turned the migrant voters as ‘second class voters’ in their own country.
They told media that Election Commission has been providing voter lists to the candidates after filing M forms just 24 hours before the polling starts, which is violation of the fundamental right of the contesting candidate.
Both the leaders expressed concern and questioned the Election Commission of India as to why no action has been taken despite repeated representations to the Chief Electoral officer in Jammu and the Chief Election Commission at Delhi regarding irregularities in voter lists of Kashmiri migrants from valley.
Elaborating further, the BJP leaders informed that in 1996 assembly election, there were 1.47 lakhs of Kashmiri migrant votes while 97 thousands votes were polled.
They further said that in 2002 the Kashmir Pandit voters deceased and the number came down to 1.17 lakhs and despite of being boycott call of Hurriyat Conference 40 thousand votes of KPs were polled.
They further said that in 2008 the number of Kashmiri migrant votes again decreased upto 71000 out of which 17000 votes had been polled.
They explained that the reason behind the decrease in migrant votes is M-form which puts hurdles for the Kashmir Pandits in their democratic right to vote.
Citing an example, H L Chatta said that during 2008 assembly polls, there were 400 Kashmiri Pandit votes in Chanam village of Baramulla but in the list prepared for 2009 parliamentary election only 16 names are there in the voter list which reflects that names of KP votes have been deleted deliberately for which Election Commission and Government is responsible as they both have failed to check the same.
Chatta said that now National Conference (NC) and Congress are again responsible for curbing the right of Kashmiri Pandits (KP) by getting their names removed from the voter list.
Alleging misuse of funds liberated from the Centre for the Kashmiri Pandits and refugees by the state governments, the BJP leaders demanded inquiry into alleged misuse of funds.
Maintaining that BJP led government at the centre can only protect the right of KPs, Chatta said that during NDA rule at the Centre migrants had been provided jobs in paramilitary forces, in industries, relief had been increased. He appealed to the Kashmiri Pandits to vote and support BJP for safeguarding of their interest.
They further appealed the Kashmiri Pandit migrants from valley to vote in favour of party candidates Avtar Krishan Pandita and Mohammed Sadiq Khan who are contesting the parliamentary election from Srinagar and Anantnag constituencies respectively.