Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee and NC-Congress joint candidate for Anantnag parliament constituency, G A Mir, Monday said that the demand of PDP contesting candidate to postpone the by-polls scheduled on Wednesday is “meaningless”.“Postponement of by-polls is meaningless and does not convey any sense when so much preparation and machinery has been put into it,” Mir told KNS.“We had said it before the date for elections was notified that atmosphere was not conducive in Kashmir. Encounters, protests and killing of civilians did not stop this year after the 2016 unrest. Keeping the worst situation in mind, we had demanded not to hold elections. But the state government and ruling party was in a hurry, so they went ahead it,” Mir said.“Now, when PDP is sensing an imminent defeat in Anantnag constituency after the killings in Budgam district, it’s candidate has come up with a meaningless demand,” Mir said.PDP’s candidate for Anantnag Tasaduq Mufti today demanded that Election Commission of India to postpone the by-polls slated for Wednesday.
Opposition National Conference General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar told KNS that the met the Chief Electoral Officer of the state and put forward their stand before him about postponement of the by-polls.“PDP has accepted the defeat in Anantnag after its government unleashed terror and violence in Budgam on Monday. To save their candidate and party from the embarrassment, PDP has come up with this demand which does not make any sense now,” Sagar told KNS.“We told the CEO that Election Commission of India should decide about it,” he said.Asked that NC-Congress’s joint candidate G A Mir had opposed the postponement of the elections, Sagar said that Mir is contesting candidate, he has to “put forward his stand on it.”By-polls on Anantnag parliamentary constituency, comprising 16 assembly segments in Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag and Shopian, were to be held on Wednesday.However, after the killing of eight civilian young men in Budgam and Ganderbal districts on polling day in Srinagar parliament constituency, the PDP candidate Tasaduq Mufti today appealed the ECI to postpone the by-polls. (KNS)