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| Presence of proxy candidates adds colour to civic polls | | People attach strings to resignation of Junaid Mattu | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 12: The ongoing civic polls in Kashmir are unprecedented due to ambiguity over the political affiliations of the candidates.
However, at the same time presence of proxy candidates has added some colour to the election process. The campaigning has been a low key affair in the civic polls with hardly any rally taking place in the Kashmir valley more so in turbulent areas.
A group of people while sharing views with Early Times said that as two of the leading regional parties National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have decided not to contest the elections, there is ambiguity over the political affiliation of the candidates.
There are many people who say that NC and PDP have projected proxy candidates for the civic elections. These people say that the boycott call was for public consumption only.
"It is a known fact that NC and PDP are mainstream political parties and they cannot think beyond the electoral process. Proxy candidates of these parties have come up in the first two phases and it would be repeated in subsequent phases as well," said the group of people.
The group of people while citing the example of former NC spokesman Junaid Mattu said that the cold shouldered reaction of the party towards Mattu's resignation is enough to prove that the situation is not too normal. They said that party should have taken on their former spokesman and issued a stern warning to him.
"The resignation of Mattu seems to be a part of the match fixing process and it is a well thought of plan. Since the NC has decided not to contest the civic polls they have asked Mattu to resign and fight the polls.
If he wins then there are chances that he may become Mayor of Srinagar and as such NC would regain hold of Srinagar Municipal Corporation," said the people.
The people said that if NC had decided not to fight elections then what forced the party president Dr. Farooq Abdullah to ask people to vote in good numbers in the civic and panchayat elections. The NC President said this during a function organized by the Department of Posts in Srinagar with Governor Satya Pal Malik very much present there. |
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