Satya Pal Malik, the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, announced the dissolution of the State Assembly, on Wednesday evening.
The Legislative Assembly was dissolved before its tenure, which was till October 2020. The reason for the early dissolution is said to be the proposal of two State political parties’ coalition with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) respectively.
Mehbooba Mufti, Public Democratic Party (PDP,) claimed to gain power in the State and proposed for a collaboration with the Congress and the National Conference, with their support of 56 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA.) A few minutes later, the opposition party, the People’s Conference, also teamed up with the BJP, with the support of 25 BJP legislators and 18 independent lawmakers.
Mehbooba Mufti took over to Twitter and criticised Malik’s early dissolution of the State Assembly.
Have been trying to send this letter to Rajbhavan. Strangely the fax is not received. Tried to contact HE Governor on phone. Not available. Hope you see it @jandkgovernor pic.twitter.com/wpsMx6HTa8
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 21, 2018
PS – In todays age of technology, it is very strange that the fax machine at HE Governor’s residence didn’t receive our fax but swiftly issued one regarding the assembly dissolution. 🤔4/4
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 21, 2018
Mr. Malik, gave multiple reasons for the early dissolution of the Assembly. He stated reasons like an unstable environment and various security issues for taking such a step. He said, “There was no imminent reason to dissolve it before as no one has come with a horrible proposition to form government.”
Mr. Malik further said, due to the impossible scenario of a stable government in the State and parties with different ideologies, dissolving the Assembly is the right thing to do for now. The State Government was planning to take the step since June and the order for the same was issued now.
Mr. Malik emphasized on the different ideologies held by the members of both the competing parties, in order to gain power. The possible exchange of money to garner the support of legislators to gain power was also stated as one of the reasons by the Governor for the Assembly’s early dissolution.
Mehbooba Mufti said, “Oddly enough our pleas fell on deaf ears. But who would have thought that the very idea of grand coalition would give such jitters.”
The dissolution of the Assembly nullified all the elections which happened earlier this month and paved way for fresh elections. The Jammu and Kashmir elections are expected to be held at the same time as the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
