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Rajya Sabha approves statutory resolution to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir for 6 months

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jul 01, 2019, 08:25 PM IST
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File photo. Photograph:(ANI)

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah had moved a resolution earlier in the lower house and had said that the extension was essential to facilitate fresh Assembly elections in the state later this year.

Rajya Sabha on Monday approved the statutory resolution to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir. The extension is for a period of further 6 months which will come into effect from July 3.

The House also passed Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

While regional parties and the Congress did not stand in the favour of the extension, scores of political parties like Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and the Biju Janata Dal announced their support to the extension and the bill on Monday. 

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On June 28, Lok Sabha approved the statutory resolution to extend President's Rule in Jammu & Kashmir with effect from July 3rd, 2019.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had moved a resolution earlier in the lower house and had said that the extension was essential to facilitate fresh Assembly elections in the state later this year.

Shah, earlier in the day, said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold Assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.

Previously, former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah criticised Shah’s argument in the House as an "unacceptable one". 

“So the Home Minister’s argument is that because the Congress has used Article 356 more times than anyone else the Modi government is justified in denying the people of J&K an elected government. That’s an unacceptable argument,” Abdullah tweeted on Friday.

The Congress strongly opposed the extension, blaming the "incompatible" alliance of BJP and PDP for the current security situation in the state.

"Today the situation is such that we have to extend the President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir for every six months. Its roots are in the incompatible alliance of PDP and BJP in 2015," Congress leader Manish Tewari said in the Lok Sabha on June 28. 

The President's Rule was implemented in the state in June last year following the collapse of the PDP-BJP alliance. The State Assembly, initially kept in suspended animation was dissolved by Governor Satya Pal Malik in November.