Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 11: With Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing elections to 11 biennial vacancies and by-elections to the Legislative Council on March 2, the PDP-BJP combine is all set to get comfortable majority in the Upper House from the very beginning and would be in a position to get their MLCs elected to the posts of Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
While post of the Deputy Chairman has already fallen vacant with the election of National Conference leader Javed Rana to the Legislative Assembly from Mendhar, the post of Chairman held by Congress veteran Amrit Malhotra will fall vacant with his retirement in March.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Legislative Council presently has strength of 34 as against 36 in view of two vacancies of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Out of 34 members, 16 have retired or would be retiring by March-April while three MLCs, whose term was pending, have ceased to be members of the House following their election to the Assembly.
“This way, a total of 19 vacancies have arisen or would be arising in the Upper House in next couple of months. The ECI had yesterday announced election to 11 vacancies while eight other vacancies are in the Nomination category as eight MLCs had to be nominated by the Governor on recommendations of the Government,” sources said, adding that seven MLCs nominated by previous dispensation were also retiring in March-April. One of them Subash Gupta has already retired.
The PDP-BJP combine would have all eight seats in the Nomination category. In elections for 11 seats, the newly formed combine would easily win nine seats and can even get 10 if it managed to get votes of some Independent candidates, who in the recently held Rajya Sabha elections had voted for National Conference-Congress alliance. Further, if the Government is formed before the Legislative Council elections, the PDP-BJP combine would have added advantage of two votes as the Government can nominate two women to the Assembly, who can cast vote in the Council elections.
Sources said out of 19 vacancies, the PDP-BJP combine would comfortably get 17 or even 18. Of remaining 15 members in the Legislative Council, who still have term of two to four years, six belonged to NC, seven to Congress and two to PDP.
The sitting PDP MLCs–Naeem Akhter, chief spokesperson of the party and Yash Pal Sharma have four years term left.
According to sources, even if PDP-BJP combine gets 17 seats out of 19 vacancies, their number would stand at 19 as the PDP already has two members in the Upper House though the BJP has none. In the House of 34, the figure of 19 for PDP-BJP combine would be one more than majority and the two parties can comfortably get their Chairman and Deputy Chairman elected in the House.
The NC and Congress presently have 13 members in the Council, who have a term of two to four years left. Their number could go up to 14 or 15 after elections to 11 vacancies on March 2, sources said.
As per the understanding between NC and Congress, the NC will get the Council seats which the former coalition partners can win together with 27 votes in lieu of NC support to Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress veteran, who was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Though NC-Congress combine would put up an effective opposition with 14 or 15 MLCs, it would be smooth sailing for PDP-BJP combine with 19 to 20 MLCs to get their legislations approved from the House even without support of the combined opposition.
However, strength of NC-Congress combine would come down after two years as their five more members will retire on April 19, 2017 and the two parties would hardly manage to retain one or two seats from them and rest three or four would go to the PDP-BJP combine. Five MLCs, who would complete their term on April 19, 2017, are Master Noor Hussain, Daramveer Singh Oberoi and Dr Bashir Ahmad Veeri (all NC), Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jehangir Hussain Mir (both Congress).
The PDP-BJP combine can further strengthen their position in the Upper House if the elections are held to the Urban Local Bodies, which will lead to election of two more posts. It was PDP leader and then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who had ordered ULB elections in January 2005 after gap of 26 years. Then PDP and Congress had shared one seat each of the MLC from the quota of ULBs. However, the ULBs completed their term in March 2010 but since then the elections were not held to them by previous NC-Congress coalition.
The Legislative Council has strength of 36 but due to no ULBs, the strength of the House at present stood at 34 including four seats reserved for election by the Panchayat members. Four Panchayat representatives in the Upper House included Sham Lal Bhagat and Ghulam Nabi Monga (both Congress), Ali Mohammad Dar and Dr Shehnaz Ganai (both NC). Their term will expire on December 6, 2018.
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