STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad was among the early voters to cast his vote at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Gandhi Nagar in the first hour of polling. Asked about West Pakistani refugees, Valmikis and the Gorkha community who are eligible to vote in the assembly elections for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Azad said some issues have been there since 1947 and they were always used by different parties for their political gains. “There are current issues like statehood, Article 35A and growing unemployment, which is the biggest problem and is linked to every religion and the future of the youth,” he said. No regional or national party has focused on the issue of unemployment as they should have during campaigning. On the possibility of the DPAP or someone else emerging as the kingmaker after the elections, Azad said that in a democracy, people are the real fountainheads and not the parties. “It is the people who vote you to power and let us leave it to the voters and see who they want to hand over the power to,” he said.
