New delhi sources stated that the Congress decided to boycott the J&K local body elections, the first after the narendra modi government scrapped the state’s special status, to protest against the detention of its leaders. When addressing a press conference, Ghulam Ahmad Mir of the J&K Congress said “Stakeholders were not taken into consideration before taking any decision on Jammu and Kashmir. We have never run away from elections but if an election has been called for, then where are the political parties? We want them to be released for campaigning but there has been no response from the government”.
Furthermore Mir said, “The way BDC elections have been announced is not right procedures have been violated. A well to do state has been destroyed un-democratically.” The leader added, “It is clear that only one party is being facilitated given the prevailing situation we have decided to boycott these BDC elections.”
Moreover mainstream political leaders in the Valley, including two former chief ministers omar abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have been either detained or placed under house arrest since the government announced dilution of provisions of Article 370 over two months ago. Perhaps the state administration said last week that political leaders under house arrest in Kashmir will be released in a phased manner after proper analysis of every individual.
