Sajad Lone on voting rights to non-locals in Jammu and Kashmir: ‘Will sit on hunger strike to protest demographic intervention’

Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone on Monday said that his party members will sit on a hunger strike in front of the Parliament if there is a demographic intervention or the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are compromised. The comments came just ahead of the “all-party meeting” called by Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference today to discuss the issue of “inclusion of non-local voters” in the revised electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir.

“It’s not the law that’s a threat to us, we’re scared of those implementing the law. If we feel there is demographic intervention or the rights of the people of J&K are compromised, then we will sit on hunger strike in front of Parliament in Delhi,” JKPC chairman Lone said. 

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The announcement of the summary revision of electoral rolls by the UT’s Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar last week, allowing non-local residents in the Valley to register as a voter, created a flutter among regional parties who claimed that the “inclusion of non-locals was a clear-cut ploy to disenfranchise the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. 
In a clarification issued on Saturday, the government clarified that reports of a likely addition of over 25 lakh voters were a “misrepresentation of facts by vested interests”.

“The Kashmiri migrants will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi, etc,” it said.

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“This revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the increase in numbers will be of voters who have attained the age of 18 years as of October 1, 2022, or earlier,” it added.

Speaking to reporters in Srinagar, Lone said that JKPC neither accepts the clarification given by the government in totality nor does it reject it. “We as a party neither accept the clarification given by the government in totality nor do we reject it. We know the current administration here or in Delhi doesn’t hold political parties in J&K in high esteem,” he said.