Srinagar /April, 18 : National Conference Vice President and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday asked the central government to get off the high horse, allow the people of Jammu and Kashmir the democratic right of electing the government of their own choice as ‘it is now running out of excuses’
Talking to reporters after casting his vote along with his father and National Conference poll constant for Srinagar parliamentary constituency at a polling station in Sonwar in the high security Gupkar area.,Omar said ” in the context of Kashmir, these elections have been significantly different from the by-elections of 2017 that Farooq Sb won. In that election we barely managed one or two public meetings outdoors’, adding
‘all our election activity was confined to closed rooms and walled off areas and in this election thankfully we found the electorate for more receptive.’
Saying that ‘I don’t know what that will mean for turnouts but at least in terms of the atmosphere for campaigning and the receptiveness of the people to the message that we were taking out to them it is a far more receptive electorate today than it was in 2017’, Omar said ‘I only hope that having seen the environment in which we were able to conduct both the campaign for north Kashmir and also central Kashmir and hopefully south Kashmir as well that the government of India gets off its high horse and gives the people of Jammu and Kashmir the opportunity to choose an elected government sooner rather than later because they are now running out of excuses to delay assembly elections’.
Saying that assembly elections were delayed because of Parliament, Omar said ‘now the parliament elections are due to conclude’, adding ‘we can only hope that the centre together with the EC gives the people of Jammu and Kashmir an elected government which is their right.’
