In a major development, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday postponed polling for the Anantnag Lok Sabha to the sixth phase on 25 May on the demand of the BJP and some regional parties.

The polling for the constituency was earlier scheduled to take place on 7 May in the third phase of the election.

The ECI ordered that “the commission after considering the report from the UT administration as well as analyzing the ground situation in the said constituency has decided under Section 56 of Representation of People Act, 1951, to revise the date of the poll in the said parliamentary constituency in respect of ongoing general election to Lok Sabha”.

“Various representations have been received from different political parties of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir for shifting the date of a poll of election from Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency due to various logistic, communication and the natural barrier of connectivity turning out as hindrance in campaigning which in turn tantamount to lack of fair opportunities for the contesting candidates in the said parliamentary constituency which may affect poll process”, the ECI said.

Reacting to this development, former PDP minister Naeem Akhtar wrote on X; “This is yet another travesty of free exercise of franchise in J&K that has lost generations in pursuit of democratic rights. This decision to pander to the bonsai parties planted post-August 2019 is fraught with immense dangers. It’s a repeat of the disastrous 1987 election fraud”.

Former chief ministers, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, had asked the ECI not to postpone the polls for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency on the pleading of the BJP and its allies.

National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who is the PDP candidate for the Anantnag seat, had few days ago warned the ECI not to act in a partisan manner under the pressure of BJP and its allies whose demand for postponing the polls was unjustified. The two leaders also wrote to the ECI against “tinkering” with the election process.

“I appeal to the ECI that such a step should not be taken. The demand for postponement is not from all parties. The weird thing is that some of the people who have written to the EC are not contesting. If I write to the EC about constituencies in Tamil Nadu etc. will they take notice,” he said.

Mehbooba said, “They all have ganged up against me because they do not want to see me in Parliament. The people, cutting across religious and party lines, are coming forward in my support and they are, therefore, using the Election Commission to defer and rig the elections”.

The PDP leader said she travelled through the Mughal road which was recently opened for traffic and now the BJP and its friend parties have suddenly raked up the issue of the Mughal road.