Ready to hold Jammu and Kashmir polls with general elections: Rajnath Singh
New Delhi, Jan 3 (IBNS): Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the Centre was ready to hold Assembly elections simultaneously with the general elections this year if the Election Commission wanted it.
Answering leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad's question if the Union government was ready to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said: "The (central) government will not have any problem if the Election Commission wants to conduct polls there."
Saying that it would be incorrect to say the NDA government at the Centre was responsible for the situation in India's troubled northernmost state, the home minister invited suggestions from all political parties on how to solve the problem.
"I am ready to accept all suggestions and move forward. But it would not be proper to say that we are responsible for the current situation in the state," he said.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under President's Rule since December 20.
Prior to that, the state had been under Governor's Rule since June when the BJP withdrew support to Mehbooba Mufti's PDP government.
In November, governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Legislative Assembly, citing the “impossibility of forming a stable government by the coming together of political parties with opposing political ideologies”.
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