National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said that the Centre seems to be ready to hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, but many ‘kings without crown’ in local administration are out to ‘sabotage’ the electoral process in the Union Territory. Abdullah said that there is no possibility of elections in Jammu and Kashmir if the ‘vested interests’ in the union territory prevail.

“You have to ask this question (about elections) to the local administration here. Was (is) the administration ready to hold elections? While the prime minister and the home minister are talking about elections (in Jammu and Kashmir), the local administration is out to sabotage it because there are so many kings without crowns who do not want the transfer of power back to the people,” he said.

Some people sitting in the secretariat want the power to remain with them in a centralised way – he further added. 

Abdullah said that he had visited Ramban to bridge the disconnect between people and the leadership since 2019 when the Union government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370. 

Delimitation, elections, statehood: Amit Shah’s roadmap for J&K

The Union government has vehemently said that it is committed to conducting elections in Jammu and Kashmir. During his visit to Jammu and Kashmir in October, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had spelt the roadmap for Jammu and Kashmir and said that elections in UT will take place after the delimitation exercise. This will be followed by the restoration of full statehood.

“There will be delimitation. After that, there will be elections, and after that statehood will be restored. I have stated it in Parliament. And this is the roadmap,” Shah had said in Srinagar.