Lt. Governor wants to help BJP in staking claim to government formation

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is reported to have decided to go ahead with nominating five members to the Union Territory Assembly soon after the results of the recently held elections are announced on Tuesday October 8 , sending jitters to the opposition parties.

As these nominated members including two women, two Kashmiri Pandits (one of them has to be a woman), and another from displaced persons of PoJK will have voting rights and participate in a vote of confidence, the Congress, National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and some other regional parties have alleged that the move has the backing of the Centre and is aimed at helping the BJP in the number game.

An aggregate of half a dozen exit polls indicate J&K is likely headed for another hung assembly. In this scenario, the political parties are concerned that the five nominated members being chosen by Sinha in consultation with the Union Home Ministry will give an edge to the BJP which is exploring government formation by targeting alliances with independents and smaller groups. “These nominated members would hold the key to the government formation in the event of the elections throwing up a hung assembly. They will surely side with the BJP to raise its tally to stake the claim to form the new government. That’s the game plan,” said an NC leader.

The opposition parties are apprehensive that Sinha has visited Delhi ahead of the vote count to “seek direction” from the government functionaries and his endeavour would be to “help the BJP, the party he belongs to”. BJP’s J&K unit president Ravinder Raina on Monday October 7 reiterated that his party would “emerge as the single largest party with, at least, 35 seats” in this election and would form the new government with the support of “our friends” from among the winners.

Even though no official word is available on who the people being nominated to the Assembly by the Lt. Governor are. PDP leader Iltija Mufti in a post on ‘X’, said, “All of the five MLAs nominated by LG are BJP members or associated with the party. Brazen pre-result rigging & shameful manipulation. Might as well have nominated all 90 members instead. Why even hold elections? 1987s stolen election took J&K to the brink. Yet no lessons learnt?”

As per the amended J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the Lt. Governor may nominate two members to the J&K Legislative Assembly to give representation to women, if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the House. He may also nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of Kashmiri migrants and one member from displaced persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the Legislative Assembly. But the opposition parties insist that he can do it only on the advice of the government and not arbitrarily on his own. The BJP and some legal experts say that J&K is a Union territory and the centre of power is the Lt. Government as per the amended rules it is his discretion whom he nominates as a member of the Assembly.

The Congress is deadly opposed to nominating five MLAs before the formation of the government, asserting such a move of the Lt. Governor will be undemocratic and undermine the public mandate. JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra said, “Even the President of India nominates members to the House (Parliament) on the advice of the Government of India. How can the Lt. Governor of a Union territory do it arbitrarily?”

Former chief minister and NC president Farooq Abdullah said that such decisions are the prerogative of elected governments. “We want qualified individuals to be nominated to the Assembly. The Lt. Governor must wait and choose the people on the recommendations of the government,” he told reporters here.

After the nomination of five members by the Lt. Governor, the J&K Assembly strength will rise to 95 members and the majority figure to stake the claim to form the government will be 48.

Meanwhile, a BJP leader Muhammad Yousuf Sofi has in an interview with Greater Kashmir newspapers revealed the names of the five persons, he said, are being nominated to the Assembly by the Lt. Governor. “They all are BJP people-Ashok Kaul who is BJP General Secretary (Org.), Rajnish Sethi, former secretary of our (BJP) Mahila Morcha, Dr. Fareeda Khan who is working with me as the state secretary…I’m the vice president, Sunil Sethi who is the chairman of our disciplinary committee and also the party chief spokesperson and Rajni Geeta Thakur who is the president of our Mahila Morcha and a refugee.” Reiterating, “They all are our own people”, he said, “There is a BJP government at the Centre. Understandably, it is our people who have to be…”

                                       ( Source : D C )