Jammu, Apr 30:
The National Conference Tuesday urged the Election Commission to abolish the M-form exercise for Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters, saying the process acts as a “deterrent” for casting of votes by the community. “All KP organisations, including the National Conference Minority Cell, have been relentlessly pursuing with the EC that the system of M-Forms for Kashmiri pandit migrant voters be done away with as the cumbersome process is working as a deterrent for casting of votes,” former Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir and senior NC leader Vijay Bakaya said. There are nearly one lakh KP migrant voters registered in the Valley and a majority of them did not exercise their franchise in the first four phases of the parliamentary elections at designated polling stations for the community in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi. Filing of M-Forms is mandatory for displaced voters from the Valley ahead of every parliamentary and Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir. “The NC minority cell will continue its efforts to get the M-Form irritant removed,” Bakaya said, adding “there is no question of Kashmiri Pandits boycotting the polls as that would go contrary to their intense desire to be politically empowered.
