SRI NAGAR: In the wake of the ‘one nation one election’ debate the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit has demanded that the term of the state assembly be reduced from six to five years.
Senior J&K BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta said that like other states of the country, the tenure of J&K Assembly should also be for five years and should have laws similar to those enacted by Parliament for the rest of the country.
He said the central government does have the prerogative to reduce J&K Assembly’s tenure from current six years to five years.“If our party comes to the power in the forthcoming Assembly elections, we will pass a law to bring the Assembly’s tenure at par with other states of the country by reducing its term to five years from present six years,” the BJP leader said.
The State is presently under President’s Rule and the elections for the 87 member J&K Assembly is likely to be held later this year.Gupta said that his party was not able to reduce the term of Assembly earlier because during the 2015-18 tenure it was part of a coalition government. This time they are hopeful of forming their own government.
BJP spokesman Balbir Ram Rattan said the 42nd Amendment of Constitution under which term of Parliament and state assemblies was increased to six years was immediately adopted by the then NC government but when the same Amendment was withdrawn the then government decided not to adopt it.
Rattan alleged that the law suited “personal interests of Kashmir-centric parties” and thus was adopted by them and has not been changed since.