The die is cast; election Schedule announced

Calling the bluff of those “main stream” political Parties who, under the alleged “hazy stand” of the Central Government over Article 35 A, decided to boycott the Municipal and Panchayat elections, the State Government has made it amply clear that it seriously intends to cross the Rubicon and go ahead with holding these elections as per schedule. It has, as such, sent an unambiguous message to all concerned that involving people at the grass root level in running democratic institutions was more important than “other” issues bumped up for sheer political expediency.
To set the process going, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has announced the election schedule on Sept 15 and has given the details as well. Municipal Elections are going to be held on October 8, 10, 13 and 16 while the counting will be held on Oct 20 so as to ensure the entire poll process to be over by Oct 27. Resorting to extreme care and precision, the State Election Commission has come out in finalising four phase election schedule for Municipal bodies by splitting violence infested South Kashmir and Srinagar Municipal Corporation in all the four phases. However, it will be three phases for Jammu region and one phase for Ladakh respectively.
The phases along with all date wise details, right from date of issuing notification, last date for making nominations, scrutiny, and withdrawal to polling etc have duly been notified by the State Election Commission and all the preparations have started for holding the democratic event which was overdue by nearly more than two years. That, acts of violence and lawlessness in certain pockets of the state, as a matter of prudence, should not hold to ransom the democratic exercise in the entire state which is directly related to the people at grass root levels, has been duly addressed. That speaks for the Urban Local Bodies’ elections taking place now shortly, say from Oct 8 till the counting date of Oct20 to be followed by Panchayat elections in November 2018.
The boycott decision of two major political parties of the State, though, unfortunate could be seen not conducive in strengthening the nationalist democratic forces in Jammu and Kashmir with special reference to Kashmir valley. There are no two opinions on the imperativeness to politically resist the elements whose activities were inimical to usher in an atmosphere of peace, stability and confidence in the valley where people, by and large, were jaded with and all blasé for the ongoing violence.
It is surprising that the Congress Party with its claims of chequered history of upholding democracy and democratic institutions should indirectly be in agreement with the boycott call of the two main political parties of the State with whom it has formed coalition Governments in the past in Jammu and Kashmir state. It has unexpectedly “beamed its political sagacity” by opining that the situation on the ground was not favourable for the exercise. We expected a bigger positive role to be played by the Party in the instant case to bolster the morale of both the contestants as well as those wanting to exercise their right to vote. The need of the hour is to bring in, as much as possible, democratic political activities in the troubled areas along with fighting the disruptive elements spreading the cult of violence and hatred. This two pronged strategy together, and not in isolation of each other, would bring positive desired results. Let us not lose sight of the fact that a fire spreads rapidly and widely but it takes comparatively more time to douse it. Hence, politics of boycott, negativism, expediency and opportunism were detrimental to the tenets of democracy and democratic institutions which otherwise felt imperilled in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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