THE ELECTED GOVERNMENT WILL GET COMPLETE SUPPORT OF THE LG

When Sheikh Abdullah was sworn in as chief minister on July 9, 1977 after the National Conference won the assembly polls, it marked the end of the first spell of governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

The polls were regarded as the first free and fair elections in the state, where large-scale rigging had dented the credibility of the democratic process, and the credit went to prime minister Morarji Desai.

Manoj Sinha, lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, says free and fair elections were held for the second time in the state in 2002 when A.B. Vajpayee was prime minister and the third time in 2014, after Narendra Modi became prime minister. “Otherwise, there used to be a collector saab here and two kinds of MLAs were chosen—one by the public and the other by the collector saab,” says Sinha in an exclusive interview with THE WEEK. And he thinks the Union territory is ready for another free and fair election. “In the past five years, after the abrogation of Article 370, people’s faith in the Constitution and democratic process has gone up,” he says.

A three-time Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, Sinha was a minister of state in the first Modi government. He was said to be in the race for the post of Uttar Pradesh chief minister when the BJP won the assembly elections in 2017. He took charge as lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2020.