Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Sep 17
Jammu and Kashmir would need fresh Assembly elections if statehood is restored, Leader of Opposition (LOP) Sunil Sharma said on Thursday, arguing that the current legislature was elected when the region was a Union Territory.
“Whenever statehood is restored, there will be new elections in the state,” Sharma, a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator, told reporters in Anantnag.
“If statehood comes today, elections will have to be held because the new constitutional arrangement will be that of a state,” he said.
Sharma questioned the need for the current government to continue if it believed it lacked decision-making powers and said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should dissolve the Assembly if that was the case.
He also rejected suggestions that the BJP was seeking to bring down the government.
“We will never topple it,” Sharma said. “If it topples on its own, we do not have to be responsible for it.”
Sharma said the BJP would raise public concerns, including the restoration of statehood, during the Assembly’s upcoming session.
He also accused Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather of favouring the government in deciding the duration of the session.
Referring to Abdullah’s recent comments on statehood, Sharma said the chief minister’s remarks suggested he knew when the Centre would restore the region’s statehood.
On Article 370, Sharma said Parliament had taken the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
He also defended the Centre’s development record over the past decade and called for talks with daily-wage workers protesting in essential government departments.
Sharma urged the workers to end their strike if the government agreed to negotiate, saying the opposition’s role was to raise public issues.
