New Delhi, Sept 09: In a major exercise to review the arrangements for the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Monday briefed his Cabinet colleagues and BJP leaders about government's preparations for the crucial polls.
The high-level meeting was attended among others by Union Ministers George Fernandes, Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie, Sharad Yadav, Shahnawaz Hussain, TR Baalu, Digvijay Singh, Uma Bharti, Vijay Goel and BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu.

"This was neither a formal Cabinet meeting, nor an informal one. It was an informal gathering," Swaraj told reporters after the 90-minute meeting at North Block.

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Stating that government was making efforts to ensure that the elections were "free, fair, credible and participatory", she said officials of external affairs, home and defence ministries briefed the meeting about the poll preparations in Jammu and Kashmir.

While sources said that the meeting was also called to ensure that the government spoke "in one voice" on the J&K polls which were being keenly monitored by the world community, Swaraj undermined this view saying elections to the state were "no different from any other state in the country".

The arrangements by the Election Commission and security agencies were reviewed at the meeting.

To a question how could the government ensure free and fair elections in the state, Swaraj said, "it is heartening to know that eight to ten thousand people were attending election rallies".

"What more participation do you want. It is people's participation which is a guarantee for free and fair polls. Keeping the crowds participating at these rallies in mind, I don't think we require any other benchmark for fairness of the polls," the information and broadcasting minister said.

There were many people who were earlier queueing up outside party offices to seek tickets to contest the polls. "This showed there was lot of enthusiasm among the people over these elections".

Earlier, the sources said several ministers exchanged their views over the elections at the meeting, with many of them wanting to know the government's position on different aspects of the election process.

They said Monday's exercise was meant to educate the ministers and other leaders about the government's positions on various issues relating to the J and K polls in order to ensure that everyone spoke in "one voice". Bureau Report