Indian Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera on Monday said that the Indian Congress-National Conference alliance “will restore Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) right to statehood”.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced that assembly elections in India-held J&K will be conducted from Sept 18 to Oct 1, setting the stage for the first major electoral exercise in the disputed region since its dismemberment in August 2019.

The poll schedule was announced a month after the Modi government had widened the scope of the held J&K lieutenant governor’s (LG) powers from police and public order to postings and prosecution sanctions.

The opposition had condemned the move calling it the step to rendering the chief minister in held J&K “powerless” and disempowering the region’s people.

While speaking to ANI, Khera said that the state of held J&K was “a state whose rights were taken away, statehood was taken away, it was made a Union Teritory” urging that the state must get back this right.

He added, “We will get back this right of Jammu and Kashmir.”

He also told ANI that people have faith in Congress and said, “If you look at the track record of Congress, be it Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, wherever we have formed governments we implemented our guarantees.”

The Congress leader mentioned that the people of held J&K had “made up their minds” and decided that “if BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] has to be defeated, then only India alliance parties should be voted for.”

“We have kept our entire agenda in front of you in our manifesto,” he said.

Khera, while presenting the manifesto “Haath Badlega Halaat” (Hand will change circumstances), said that his party’s first promise was that they would give back the statehood to the people of held J&K.

While the Congress’ manifesto promised to work towards reinstating statehood if they formed a government in the region, it didn’t mention anything about Article 370, which the BJP-led government had repealed in 2019 to revoke occupied Kashmir’s special status.

According to Economic Times, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — while addressing a rally in Udhampur — had said: “The task of giving the status of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir will also be done by a BJP government.”

Khera, in response to the premier today, questioned how could the BJP be the one to provide statehood when they were the ones who “stole it”.

“If you wanted to give it then why did you take it away? This question is in the hearts and minds of every J&K resident,” Khera said.

Former foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said that Pakistan and the international community agreed that India had no authority to cancel the statehood of the held J&K.

“Even the Indian Supreme Court has said that they should return the statehood, they cannot take it,” Chaudhary said while speaking to GeoNews.