New Delhi, Feb. 25 :    New Delhi, Feb. 25:  The ruling National Conference appears to have learnt little from its mistakes, nor has the Election Commission. Anger at large-scale rigging by Farooq Abdullah's party in the 1986 Assembly elections had dealt the final blow to a people already disaffected by Delhi's policies and made it easy for separatists to call the shots. The party is being accused of large-scale rigging once again - in the byelections to the Jammu parliamentary constituency. All Opposition parties, including the BJP, a National Conference ally at the Centre, the Congress, the BSP, the Panther's Party and the Janata Dal, buried differences and joined in organising a protest shutdown of Jammu. Shops downed shutters and students boycotted classes today. The BJP said its legislators would boycott the Governor's address to the Assembly on Tuesday as a mark of protest. They would also consider quitting the Assembly, state party chief D.K. Kotwal said. State Congress president Mohammed Shafi Qureshi said: 'Those (1986) elections became the breeding ground for terrorists.' He expressed doubts over the fairness of the Assembly elections due later this year. National Conference leaders, however, dismissed the allegations. The Election Commission has withheld the bypoll results to look into the charges but it would have done better to monitor the voting on election day to avoid any grounds for complaints. The timing of the controversy is most unfortunate as Delhi was hoping to begin with a clean slate in the Valley by ensuring that the Assembly elections were free and fair. The Centre is keen to get a message across to the Kashmiris - it has no favourites and is willing to allow voters to choose their leaders. However, the allegations of rigging will convince people that no matter what happens, Delhi and its allies in Srinagar cannot be trusted. Ironically, the Hurriyat Conference had announced its own version of the election commission a few weeks ago. Though this had no legal basis, it sent a clear message to the Centre and the international community - Kashmiris have no faith in India's election officials.