Parties in Jammu advocate simultaneous LS polls

Jammu: Representatives of different political parties here met the visiting team of Election Commission of India on Tuesday and advocated holding state assembly polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
The team, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, reached Jammu on the second leg of the two-day tour and held discussions with the representatives of various political parties, including the BJP, Congress, National Conference, PDP, CPI(M) and the National Panthers Party (NPP), officials said.
A similar exercise was conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Srinagar on Monday as part of its efforts to assess the feasibility of holding the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls together. Cutting across party affiliations, the representatives of almost all parties impressed upon the commission to hold assembly elections in the state simultaneously with the Lok Sahba polls.
“The Ladakh region along with Jammu and many districts in Kashmir are peaceful and elections could be held in a phased manner to restore popular government in the state.
We are in favour of both elections simultaneously,” senior BJP leader and former J-K deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta told reporters after the party delegation met the ECI team here. State Congress vice president and former minister Raman Bhalla, who led the party delegation, said the Congress never escaped form the democratic exercise and it is the responsibility of the ECI to restore democracy in the state by holding the elections.
“If general elections could be held properly and without any major issue, then there is no justification of deferring assembly polls,” he said, adding that the people of the state want popular government in place without any further delay.
However, he demanded adequate security for the candidates.
National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana said restoration of democracy is in the interest of the state and a popular government is the need of the hour in view of the emerging situation. (PTI)