National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the Election Commission of India (EC) should show some courage and reveal that it is facing pressure not to conduct assembly election in the Union Territory.

“Election Commission of India should answer this. We want to hear from them. Did the chief election commissioner of India not say that there is vacuum here which needs to be filled? If the chief election commissioner observed that there is vacuum here, then why aren’t they filling this vacuum?” said Abdullah.

Assembly elections have not been held in J&K since December 2014, after which the PDP-BJP coalition was formed in the erstwhile state. In June 2018, the BJP withdrew support from the coalition government, following which the assembly was dissolved in the same year. In August 2019, the special status of J&K was revoked and the state was downgraded into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.