BJP delaying assembly polls in J&K as it is scared to face people: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Tuesday that the BJP was delaying the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir as it was scared to face the people.

Referring to reports in a section of the media that the revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be taken up before August 15 in view of the Amarnath pilgrimage, AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh said it was ''yet another frivolous excuse'' given to delay the assembly polls.

''Having failed to deliver on its promises, the BJP is trying to postpone elections on one pretext or the other. Scared to face the people...it preferred repeated postponement of polls and continuation of its proxy rule in the union territory,'' Singh said.

Calling for early elections to the assembly, the AAP leader said any further delay would not only amount to subversion of democracy but also violate the orders of the Supreme Court.

He said that militancy which had erupted in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1990s had gradually subsided under elected governments.

''It had almost died down during popular governments but unfortunately it got revived during the Centre's proxy rule,'' he claimed.

With hardly any forum to ventilate their grievances, the people were suffering badly in the absence of a popular government thereby resulting in growing alienation amongst the masses, he said.