Srinagar, Feb 6 (PTI) The National Conference on Saturday asked State Election Commissioner K K Sharma to disqualify those District Development Council (DDC) members who have changed their party affiliation after being elected to the district councils.

NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani and Member of Parliament from Anantnag, Hasnain Masoodi raised the issue of defections of elected DDC members with Sharma, impressing upon him to examine the issues, saying “it violates people's mandate and spirit of democracy”.

The National Conference (NC) leaders urged the State Election Commissioner (SEC) to disqualify such members who have changed their party affiliation after being elected to DDC from a particular party ticket, manifesto and symbol.

“If the issue is not combated, it is likely to undermine the very foundations of democracy,” they said.

“Such defections undermine the spirit of democracy and violate people's mandate, so such DDC members who have changed the party affiliations post the elections should be disqualified, and until proceedings in that direction were initiated, they should be debarred from voting,” the party leaders added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)