Congress goes into huddle ahead of J&K local bodies polls

The term for local bodies and panchayats in the UT is coming to an end in the month of September and October this year and there is every possibility that elections for panchayats and local bodies in J&K could be held in November.

Ahead of the local body and panchayat polls in Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress’ central and local leadership on Tuesday held a review meeting in Delhi in which important issues related to elections were discussed.

Ahead of the local body and panchayat polls in Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress’ central and local leadership on Tuesday held a review meeting in Delhi in which important issues related to elections were discussed. (HT File)

The meeting was chaired by KC Venogopal, Congress general secretary and attended by MP Rajini Patil, in-charge of the party J&K affairs.

“Held a meeting with the @INCJammuKashmir state leadership to review preparations for the upcoming local body elections,” said KC Venogopal in a tweet.

The term for local bodies and panchayats in the UT is coming to an end in the month of September and October this year and there is every possibility that elections for panchayats and local bodies in J&K could be held in November.

The UT administration has made it clear that the polls will be held soon after the term of panchayats comes to an end. Even J&K’s Lt Governor Manoj Sinha had dropped hints that local body and panchayat polls will be held later this year. After the successful Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi in J&K, Congress leaders are hopeful that the party will perform better in the upcoming panchayat and local body polls especially in Jammu region. A senior Congress leader who attended the meeting said that the strategy to fight the polls was discuss in this meeting. “After the party won two states, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the cadres on ground are upbeat and the party leadership will try to win maximum number of seats which could galvanise our leaders and workers especially after several leaders left the party after Ghulam Nabi Azad’s exit,” he said.

Last time, two big regional parties National Conference and Congress had boycotted the panchayat polls, however, this time both parties are preparing their cadres for these polls. Former J&K chief minister and NC president Farooq Abdullah said his party will never boycott any elections in future.