Opposition parties need to come together for restoration of democracy in J-K: APUM

Buoyed by the Congress' success in the Karnataka Assembly elections, a Jammu-based umbrella organisation of several mainstream parties on Monday said the opposition parties need to come together for ''restoration of democracy'' in Jammu and Kashmir.

The All Parties United Morcha (APUM), which includes the Congress, National Conference and PDP, said the people of Jammu and Kashmir want early assembly elections but the BJP is deliberately delaying the polls, fearing “humiliating defeat”.

The APUM expressed its gratitude to the people of Karnataka for rejecting the “communal and divisive” agenda of the BJP and said the southern state has given a verdict of change in the country ahead of the next year’s general elections.

“The people are totally fed up with the policies and programmes of BJP which has left them at the mercy of an irresponsible and non-responsive bureaucratic regime with the resources of J&K opened for the loot of outsiders,” the APUM said in a statement after a meeting here.

The meeting was chaired by former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman and attended by chief spokesperson of Pradesh Congress Committee Ravinder Sharma, National Conference provincial president Rattan Lal Gupta, J-K unit chief of Shiv Sena (UBT) Manish Sawhney, APUM convener and International Democratic Party leader I D Khajuria, PDP’s Virinder Singh Sonu, CPM’s Hari Singh and Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Sardar Narinder Singh Khalsa.

Claiming that unemployment is at its peak in the J&K and inflation rising, the APUM said the people of J&K want early assembly elections under statehood.

“The opposition parties should unite and struggle for restoration of democracy,” the statement said, appealing to all other political parties, which are opposed to the “policies and opportunist politics” of the BJP, to unite and fight for the rights of the people of J&K.

The APUM said the meeting felt that the BJP is delaying assembly elections in the Union territory because the party sees the “writings on the wall as it will face a humiliating defeat”.

The leaders celebrated the victory of the Congress in Karnataka and decided to carry forward the message of unity in every nook and corner of J-K to defeat the “communal, divisive and opportunist forces”.