Azad takes a dig at Delimitation Commission on Anantnag- Rajouri LS constituency

Anantnag, Apr 21: Chairman Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday highlighted the difficulties being faced by the candidates due to the geographical incongruity of Anantnag- Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency.

He said that it was better to increase one Lok Sabha seat in Jammu than to cut some areas of Anantnag and merge those with Srinagar and joining of areas of Rajouri and Poonch districts with Anantnag.

“If the Delimitation Commission had physically visited both the regions, it would have understood this geographical contrast,” Azad told reporters after launching his party’s election campaign at his ancestral village Nagam in Kokernag.

He said that the campaigning would be rather difficult, given the geographical difficulties. “The constituency has been carved out without application of mind”, Azad added. He also said that the Tangdhar constituency had been remapped on the similar lines. "There would not have been any resistance from Kashmir if the Commission had decided to increases one seat in Jammu division," Azad said.

Reiterating his poll strategy of avoiding the criticism of other parties, Azad said that he had instructed all his party men to steer clear of criticising their political adversaries. “I have made it clear the day our candidate filed his nomination papers that we will not speak against other parties. If we have to speak, we will speak against their election manifestos or policies”, he said.

The DPAP chairman said that the polls should occur in a peaceful atmosphere as all the leaders and political workers belonged to same region and they had to meet their eyes again. He said that development and creating employment opportunities for the unemployment youth are his party’s agenda.“ We do not want to drive a wedge among communities or ethnicities,” he said.