Jammu and Kashmir gears up for bypolls to 13,000 vacant Panchayat seats

Despite the prevailing Covid-19 crisis, Jammu and Kashmir government has set into motion an exercise to draw a road map and schedule for conduct of by-elections for nearly 13,000 vacant panchayat seats and large number of Block Development Councils (BDCs).

Sources said in this regard, the government has framed apex and divisional-level committees who are likely to give a report by the end of this month. “The report of the apex committee will be tabled before J&K Lieutenant Governor, who in consultation with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs will take final decision about holding the bypolls most probably by the end of October,” they said.

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As per a government order, apex and divisional-level committees have been constituted to conduct preparatory work for elections to the vacant Panchayat and BDC seats.

The apex-level committee, headed by Principal Secretary to the government Home Department, has been asked to draw a road map and detailed schedule for conduct of elections on the basis of inputs from the divisional-level committees and upon assessment of ground-level situation.

The Committee will take into consideration various requirements including security, logistics, personnel and equipment, sources said.

When the elections for panchayats were held in November-December 2018, close to 60% of the total seats in Kashmir had remained vacant due to lack of participation by the regional parties - National Conference (NC) and PDP - in the electoral process. The election was largely boycotted in Kashmir and over 12,600 panchayat seats are still lying vacant.

Earlier on February 13, J&K Chief Electoral Officer Shalinder Kumar had announced to hold bypolls to fill the vacant Panchayat seats in eight-phase polls from March 5 to March 20. It was also declared that bypolls will be conducted on a party basis unlike the Panchayat polls in November-December 2018 which were held on a non-party basis.

However, just five days later, Kumar announced that the bypolls were postponed for three weeks due to security reasons. And the exercises got further delayed after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in March.