SRINAGAR, March 26: Eyeing on the upcoming polls, new political parties float in Kashmir.
Although the Election Commission of India is yet to announce dates for assembly polls, the Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in five phases beginning April 11. The restive Anantnag parliamentary constituency, comprising Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam districts, will go to the polls “in parts” in the third, fourth, and fifth phase.
For the last few weeks, several political parties have been created in the Valley.
The representatives of these parties are either disgruntled leaders of the existing political parties or people, who claim to bring a change in the “corrupt system” of the state.
Syed Najeeb Nakvi announced of contesting the upcoming elections from Baramulla constituency.
Nakvi was former Congress member and aide of Taj Mohiuddin.
Former member parliament Abdul Rashid Shaheen, and Sequib Rehman Makhdoomi have launched own party ‘Jammu Kashmir Awami Conference’.
Another political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf has also been launched.
Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah (Former MLC) has launched JK Bachao Tahreek.
Ridwana Sanam has decided to contest from Anantnag. Bureaucrat turned politician Shah Faesal launched a political party – the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) – with a promise to bridge the distance between New Delhi and Islamabad in order to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
“I have not come here to engage in traditional politics,” Faesal said while launching party in Srinagar.
There are several other parties floated in last two weeks.
Earlier, several political parties were launched to participate in the electoral process of the state. ‘Peoples Republican Party’ (PRP) was also launched.
To become a recognised political party either at the state or national level, a party has to secure certain minimum percentage of polled valid votes or certain number of seats in the state legislative assembly or the Lok Sabha during the last election.
There have been fears that most of such parties are used to ’round trip’ the black money into white or intended to increase the voter turnout.
The Election Commission of India had found that some of the parties were “no longer in existence or functioning”.
The Election Commission of India’s latest data on political parties, registered till March 9, a day before the Lok Sabha elections were announced, reveal that the country is having a total of 2,293 political parties.
They include seven “recognised national” and 59 “recognised state” parties.
In fact, 149 political parties were registered with the poll panel between February and March on the eve of the announcement of the poll schedule.
Till February this year, the country had 2,143 political parties registered with the Commission.
