Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 15: The Election Commission of India today formally announced schedule for biennial elections to six seats of Legislative Council in Jammu and Kashmir on April 17 even as the Commission called high-level review meeting for by-elections to two Lok Sabha seats in the Valley, at New Delhi on March 24.
“Three separate elections will be held to fill six vacancies to the Legislative Council,’’ Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shantmanu, who will be responsible for holding the elections, told the Excelsior.
He added that one election will be held for filling two seats from Jammu province, second for filling one seat reserved for Poonch and third for filling three seats from Kashmir province.
Nominations for all six vacancies will open with the issuance of notification on March 22 while candidates can file their nomination papers till March 29. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 30 and the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers till April 3. Voting will be held on April 17 and counting will take place the same evening. Entire process for the elections will be completed on April 18.
Legislative Assembly Secretary Mohammad Ramzan will act as Returning Officer for the elections. The candidates can file nomination papers before him.
Eight-nine MLAs of the Legislative Assembly (87 elected and two nominated women) comprised Electoral College for the MLC elections.
While one of the vacancy has already arisen in the Legislative Council due to death of National Conference MLC Dharamvir Singh Oberoi, five other vacancies will arise on April 19 due to retirement of five other MLCs including Deputy Chairman Legislative Council, Jehangir Mir and Jugal Kishore Sharma (both Congress), Master Noor Hussain and Dr Bashir Ahmad Shah Veeri (both National Conference) and Yasir Reshi (PDP). Late Oberoi was also scheduled to retire on April 19.
Official sources said the Election Commission of India has called high-level review meeting for by-election to two Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir on March 24 at the Commission Headquarters in New Delhi. The full Election Commission will review arrangements for holding free, fair and peaceful elections in the meeting with the CEO Shantmanu.
By-election to Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha seats is scheduled to be held on April 9 and 12 respectively.
The full Election Commission will review all kind of arrangements made for peaceful elections including number of polling stations, voters, deployment of para-military forces, police, polling staff etc. After the review, the Commission will depute its representatives for on spot visit to the two Lok Sabha segments for review of the arrangements, sources said.
The Commission wants to ensure violence free elections on both Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir with good turnout despite poll boycott call given by the separatists.
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.
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.
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.
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