'BJP misrepresenting, misinterpreting law to justify inclusion of non-local voters in J&K': AAP leader

Jammu: Senior AAP leader and former minister Harsh Dev Singh on Sunday accused the BJP of misrepresenting and misinterpreting the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA) to justify the inclusion of non-local voters in Jammu and Kashmir.

Singh, a lawyer by profession, claimed that section 19 RPA Act nowhere states that a person can get registered himself as a voter outside his parent State or Union Territory merely on the ground that he is ordinarily residing there.

Amid a major controversy over the inclusion of non-locals in the revised electoral rolls in J&K, the BJP had said that under law anyone who is a citizen of India and not barred by any law can choose to be a voter in any area, state or Union Territory where he or she may ordinarily reside.

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“The RPA was implemented across the country in 1950 and was extended to J-K after the abrogation of Article 370 (in August 2019). The revision of electoral rolls is taking place in accordance with the Act,” the BJP leader had said.

Asserting that residents of other States and UTs cannot be enrolled as voters in J&K, the AAP leader lambasted the BJP for creating confusion over the subject and endorsing the inclusion of outsiders in the voters' lists of the erstwhile state.

"In its desperation to import voters from other states for promoting its political prospects in J&K, the BJP was misinterpreting law and misrepresenting the legal postulations," he alleged.