EC to fill 6 Council vacancies in March

*Dy Chairman among 6 MLCs to retire

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 15: The PDP-BJP coalition Government is likely to gain more strength in the Legislative Council with Election Commission set to hold biennial election to six vacancies, which would arise with the retirement of three National Conference, two Congress and one PDP members including Deputy Chairman of Upper House Jehangir Hussain Mir in March-April next year.
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.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council Jehangir Hussain Mir and Jugal Kishore Sharma, former Works Minister (both Congress), Dharamvir Singh Oberoi, Dr Bashir Ahmad Veeri and Master Noor Hussain (all National Conference) and Yasir Reshi (PDP) will complete their term in the Upper House on April 19, 2017.
The Election Commission of India will hold three separate elections for six vacancies in the Legislative Council by the end of March or start of April.
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.
Going by composition of the Legislative Assembly, whose 89 members 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.
Sources said Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council, Jehangir Hussain Mir, who represents Poonch reserved seat in the Legislative Council, could switch sides and contest election from the same seat as ruling PDP nominee. The Opposition has no chance on the election for lone seat. Moreover, sources said, it was then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who had offered the post of the Deputy Chairman to Jehangir Mir to give representation to remote and border district of Poonch, which has no representation in the Ministry. Mir is stated to be very close to top leadership of the PDP. However, there was no official word on this development so far but, sources said, Mir’s entry could further strengthen the PDP in view of his mass base in Poonch district.
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 would 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.
One 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.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here