Congress slams ‘BJP’s plan’ for ‘pre-Govt MLA nominations’

Jammu, Oct 3: The Congress Thursday objected to the reports of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get five of its leaders nominated to the Legislative Assembly from the Lieutenant Governor before the process of government formation in J&K.

In a statement issued here, Congress termed any such move as undemocratic and against the mandate of the people and asked the LG to desist from any such move.

Reacting strongly to the media reports in this regard, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee termed any such move as undemocratic, an attempt to defeat the mandate of the people. JKPCC senior vice president and chief spokesman Ravinder Sharma said, “The power to nominate five members to the Legislative Assembly should lie with the new government, otherwise it will be an attempt to defeat the mandate of people although the Congress-NC will get a comfortable majority to form the government but any such exercise will be contrary to the democratic norms and will be another betrayal with the mandate of the people.”

He said that the people had cast their votes to elect their representatives to form the government and whoever gets a majority in the elections should be given a chance to form the government.

“The Congress had favoured reservations in assembly for refugees, Kashmiri Pandits, and other minorities through elections to give representation to them but it will be a misuse of the provision of nomination if it is used to defeat the mandate of people by the BJP,” Sharma said.