Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 11: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to hold biennial elections for six seats of Legislative Council on April 17 or 18 within a day or two after the process for by-election to two Lok Sabha seats will be completed.
After a meeting with the three Election Commissioners in New Delhi, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jammu and Kashmir, Shantmanu told the Excelsior that the ECI has finalized schedule for holding election to six seats of the Upper House, which will be falling vacant on April 19.
“The election schedule is likely to be released in next two or three days,” he said, adding the voting dates were likely to be April 17 or 18. The voting will be held from 10 am to 5 pm. Counting will be held the same day and elections results will be out late in the night.
All six seats will be filled a day ahead of the deadline, Shantmanu said.
Newly elected Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) have to take oath on the day or before a day when the sitting MLCs retire.
Of six vacancies, National Conference MLC Dharamvir Singh Oberoi had passed away recently. Five other MLCs, who will complete their term on April 19, included Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council Jehangir Hussain Mir and Jugal Kishore Sharma, former Works Minister (both Congress), Dr Bashir Ahmad Veeri and Master Noor Hussain (both National Conference) and Yasir Reshi (PDP). Oberoi was also scheduled to retire on April 19.
Of six vacancies to be filled by the Election Commission of India in the Legislative Council, three were presently held by National Conference, two by Congress, both now in the Opposition and one by the ruling PDP.
The PDP and BJP on one side and National Conference and Congress on the other were likely to announce names of their candidates for two Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar and Anantnag as well as Legislative Council vacancies next week when nominations will open for the elections.
Srinagar Lok Sabha seat will go to polls on April 9 and Anantnag on April 12. By-election is being held to the two seats, which were held by the PDP. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had quit Anantnag Lok Sabha seat after being elected as the MLA from Anantnag while Tariq Hamid Karra had resigned from Srinagar seat in protest against what he had called “brutalities” on summer unrest protesters in 2016.
The Upper House has total strength of 36 but presently it is 34 in view of two vacancies due to non-holding of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) elections. The ULBs send two representatives to the Legislative Council.
First election will be held for three seats of Kashmir to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement of Oberoi, Veeri and Reshi while second election will fill two vacancies of Jammu region including Noor Hussain and Jugal Kishore. Third election will be held for one seat reserved for Poonch to fill the vacancy that would arise due to retirement of Jehangir Mir.
This will be second biennial election for the Legislative Council seats in the PDP-BJP coalition Government, the first one being held in February 2015 when the two parties had not formed the Government but contested the election together.
Eighty-nine members of the Legislative Assembly (87 elected and two nominated women) comprised Electoral College for the MLC elections. The PDP-BJP Alliance will be comfortable on four seats including two from the Kashmir region, one from Jammu region and lone seat reserved for Poonch district. The National Conference and Congress will be safe on one seat of Kashmir as election will be held for three seats and can muster another seat from Jammu, where election will be held for two seats, with the support of four Independent MLAs, who have been opposing the working of PDP-BJP Government.
However, as per the agreement reached between National Conference and Congress in February 2015, NC would get Congress support for all MLC elections in view of support extended by the party for election of Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad to the Rajya Sabha in February 2015.
There were indications that PDP and BJP could share two seats each, out of four, (two in Kashmir division, one in Jammu region and one reserve seat for Poonch) and try luck on second seat of Jammu as well just like they had done in 2015 Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections but lost by two and one votes respectively.
In the House of 34, PDP-BJP Alliance has 19 seats (PDP 11 and BJP 8) while National Conference-Congress have 15 members (National Conference eight and Congress 7).
However, after the March-April election, PDP-BJP strength was likely to go up to 22 as they would retain one seat of Yasir Reshi and bag three more while National Conference strength is likely to be reduced to seven. The Congress strength could come down to five.
Of 89 MLAs (87 elected and two nominated women MLAs), who comprised Electoral College for the MLC elections, PDP-BJP has confirmed support of 58 MLAs including 28 of PDP, 25 BJP, two from People’s Conference, two Nominated women MLAs and Independent MLA from Zanskar (Kargil district) Bakir Hussain Rizvi, who has the status of Minister of State as head of the Board.
On the other, National Conference and Congress have 27 MLAs (NC 15 and Congress 12) while there are four Other and Independent MLAs including Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami (CPM), Hakim Mohammad Yasin, Engineer Abdul Rashid and Pawan Gupta. All of them generally oppose working of PDP-BJP Government and their votes could fetch National Conference one seat of Jammu region if the party candidate polled 30 or 31 votes. NC will, however, be safe on one seat of Kashmir, where election will be held for three seats.
Of six retiring MLCs, five would be completing their six year full term while Yasir Reshi of PDP will have only two year term as he was elected to the Council against a vacancy caused by the resignation of one of the MLC.
The Legislative Council has strength of 36 but there are two vacancies for the past more than six years now, which couldn’t be filled due to non-holding of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) elections in Jammu and Kashmir. One vacancy each in the Council is reserved for the Jammu and Kashmir divisions, which had to be filled by elected Corporators and Councilors.
The ULB vacancies were filled in 2005 after the Municipal elections were held in January 2005. PDP’s Nizam-ud-Din Bhat was elected from Kashmir division while Congress nominee Arvinder Singh Micky had won from Jammu division. Bhat had resigned the seat after being elected to the Assembly in 2008 while Micky had completed his term in November 2010 having served as the Deputy Chairman of the Council.
As the successive Governments didn’t hold elections to the ULBs, two vacancies remained unfilled in the Upper House of the State.
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