New Delhi, Oct 24: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday, October 24, urged the centre to first grant Jammu and Kashmir statehood and then conduct elections. “Don’t make the mistake of carrying out delimitation first and then giving statehood,” he said.
His comments came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured of delimitation in Jammu & Kashmir, followed by elections and restoration of statehood.
“When Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited political leaders from Kashmir to his residence, I demanded that we’d like to have statehood, followed by elections. Other parties also demanded. I told the PM and home minister that the state shouldn’t have been divided into two in the first place. But don’t make the mistake of carrying out delimitation first and then granting statehood,” he said.
“Our demand remains that first statehood should be granted and that should be followed by elections,” he said.
He took a swipe at the BJP-led Centre, saying that Jammu & Kashmir was better off as a state with different chief ministers before the abrogation of Article 370.
He said that the state had lost a great lot since its division. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union Territories — Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh — on October 31, 2019.
