Says received reports of horse-trading,ordered dissolution to maintain political sanctity. Rejecting the allegations of the Opposition, Governor Satya Pal Malik on Thursday said he had dissolved the Legislative Assembly as per the Constitution of J&K.

“The provision of the J&K Constitution has given power to the Governor to dissolve the Assembly without taking consent of Parliament and I acted as per the Constitution,” Malik said while addressing mediapersons here on Thursday.

“After assuming charge as the Governor, I had made it clear that I would never allow horse-trading in J&K,” he said, maintaining, “For the last 15-20 days, I had been receiving information that some elements were luring MLAs one way or the other, so I acted to maintain the political sanctity of J&K.”

After the day-long political drama, the Governor on Wednesday evening dissolved the J&K Assembly following rival groups claim to form the government.

The Governor passed an order dissolving the Assembly in exercise of the powers conferred upon him under Section 53 of the Constitution of J&K.

The PDP, Congress and NC have charged the Governor with acting on the directions of the BJP high command by not allowing the formation of “grand alliance” in J&K.

“Had I acted on the instructions of the BJP headquarters, a group would have been given an opportunity to form the government,” he said.

Ridiculing statements of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, in which she has pointed fingers towards Raj Bhawan in sabotaging the move to form the PDP-NC-Congress government, the Governor reacted, “Governments cannot form through social media.”

“Had the PDP leadership been so serious in forming government, they would have deputed a person at Raj Bhawan with letters of support of other parties,” he said and charged the PDP and NC leadership with double standards. “On the one hand, PDP and NC leaders were demanding dissolution of the Assembly, but after it was done, they raised questions,” said the Governor. He said had he allowed the PDP, NC and Congress to stake claim for government formation, it would have been an “opportunistic” alliance.

He also said that providing them the opportunity to form government would have reversed the gains built by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir during the last some months.

Replying to a question, the Governor said, “My job is to accelerate developmental activities in the state. The decision to hold the Assembly elections in J&K has to be taken by the Election Commissioner of India.”

Courtesy: Tribune: 23rd Nov, 2018