NC should have participated in 2018 Panchayat polls: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference President Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday expressed regret that his party did not take part in the 2018 panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The National Conference had boycotted the elections, held in September 2018, demanding that the Centre should clarify its position on Article 35A of the Constitution. Article 35A gave special rights to the “permanent residents” of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and barred outsiders from owning immovable property there.

“I regret that my party didn’t participate in panchayat polls,” Abdullah said at a parliamentary outreach programme in Srinagar on Tuesday.

After the Centre abrogated Articles 370 and Article 35A and bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on August 5, 2019, the National Conference also boycotted the Block Development Council elections in Jammu and Kashmir in October 2019.