J&K: Counting of votes for district development council seats begins

Officials said the first result is expected by the afternoon. At every district of J&K, two to three counting centres have been setup for the smooth counting

Amid tight security and Covid-19 protocols, the counting for all 280 district development council (DDC) seats began in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday morning.

Security personnel stand guard outside a strongroom, where ballot boxes are kept at a counting centre in Jammu. (PTI)

Officials said the first result is expected by the afternoon. At every district of J&K, two to three counting centres have been setup for the smooth counting.

The polling was held via ballot papers amid heavy security in eight phases—November 28, December 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19. Jammu and Kashmir comprise 140 DDC seats each. Apart from that, elections were also held for 935 panchayat halqas and 11,814 vacant panch constituencies in the Kashmir division. In the Jammu division, 135 panchayat halqas and 339 vacant panch constituencies went to polls.

These are the first elections held in J&K after the state was divided into two Union Territories and Article 370 was revoked in 2019. Unlike the panchayat polls that were boycotted by two big regional parties, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, both contested these polls as part of an alliance, the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. The leadership of the alliance is closely watching the results and expecting to win a major chunk of DDC seats from Kashmir and some parts of Jammu region. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also hoping to win a good number of seats to portray as endorsement from the people for their policies, especially the revocation of Article 370. For the newly created Apni Party, these polls are crucial as a high number of seats could help set a political base.

A day before the counting, four prominent PDP leaders, including two former ministers, were detained by the police; but officials remain tight-lipped over these arrests. The PDP has termed these arrests an attempt to manipulate DDC results.

“J&K admin is on an arrest spree today. PDPs Nayeem Akhtar too has been abducted by J&K police & is being taken to MLA hostel. Looks like BJP is planning to manipulate DDC results tomorrow & don’t want any resistance. Democracy is being murdered in J&K.@manojsinha_ @JmuKmrPolice,” tweeted Mehbooba Mufti late last night.