Municipal elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held over four phases starting October 8, the state’s chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra said on Saturday.
Elections to municipal corporations, councils and committees will be held in four phases starting from October 8, October 10, October 13 and October 16, Kabra said. Voting will be held between 7 am to 2 pm.
Counting will take place on October 20.
Kabra said the election notification for the first phase will be issued from September 18 and for subsequent phases on September 20, 22 and 24 respectively.
He said that 17 lakh voters will have right to cast their vote in these polls.
The announcement comes days after the state’s two prominent parties, the National Conference and the Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said they will not participate in municipal and panchayat polls in the state, citing an “atmosphere of fear” due to the “assault on the special constitutional position” of Jammu and Kashmir.
Leaders of both parties had said that the linking of the local body elections with the case questioning the constitution’s article 35A in the Supreme Court “has created serious apprehensions in the minds of people who genuinely see it as assault on the special constitutional position of the state”.
Congress had also said that time is not conducive for these polls. The party’s state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir had however said the party will take a decision on participation on polls only after election notification is issued.
{{/usCountry}}Congress had also said that time is not conducive for these polls. The party’s state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir had however said the party will take a decision on participation on polls only after election notification is issued.
{{/usCountry}}J&K, which is under governor’s rule, is tense over apprehensions that article 35A might be scrapped. The Supreme Court is hearing petitions on article 35A, which empowers the J&K legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them. The court has put off the hearings to January after the Centre and the state government argued that it could lead to a law and order situation ahead of the panchayat and local body elections, slated for October-November.
BJP general secretary, Ram Madhav who met J-K governor Satyapal Malik recently has asked both the NC and the PDP to review its decision on abstaining from the polls.