We supported J-K bills hoping that elections will be held soon: Priyanka Chaturvedi

New Delhi [India]: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, speaking on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, said on Tuesday that Shiv Sena (UBT) has supported these bills with the hope that elections will be held in J-K as soon as possible.

“Our party has supported these bills in the hope that there will be elections as soon as possible, and even the Supreme Court has said that before September 2024, elections should be held in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also, to return statehood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, considering we have passed these bills, I’m hoping now that the voices of the people of Jammu and Kashmir will be heard, which have been silenced since 2014 when the last assembly elections happened there,” said Priyanka Chaturvedi.

“They (the people) will get back their assembly, they will get back their voices and through their MLAs, we will see their representation in the Rajya Sabha as well, so that the people in the country understand the situation and issues of Jammu and Kashmir,” she added.

The Rajya Sabha passed unanimously on Monday the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, with a voice vote amending key laws in the Union Territory aimed at providing “rights to those who faced injustice.”

The significant legislative move in Parliament’s Winter Session witnessed various opposition leaders raising issues to reinstate the statehood of the erstwhile state and announce elections there.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aimed at providing “rights to those who faced injustice” and were deprived of their rights in the Union Territory.

Both bills were passed by the Lok Sabha. The bills were jointly discussed a few hours after the Supreme Court passed a judgement upholding the constitutional validity of the Executive Order abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution and scrapping statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the two Jammu and Kashmir Bills, Union Minister Amit Shah said this is an important day as both these Bills will be passed and also because this will be written in golden letters in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and India.

Shah said one of the bills seeks to represent those who became refugees in their own country and also reserves one seat in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for people who have been displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Shah said several questions were raised even the day before yesterday. “In Lok Sabha, it was said that the bill is pending and is being brought in haste. The Supreme Court will do justice and we should wait for it. All these stands were not for justice but to halt the decisions taken by PM Modi.”

The Home Minister said after the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir to redraw assembly and parliamentary constituencies, there will be 43 assembly seats in the Jammu region, up from the present 37, and 47 in the Kashmir Valley, up from 46.

Shah said 24 seats have been reserved in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. “I am saying this again: Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is ours and no one can take it from us.”