‘Decision on holding elections likely after completion of Shri Amarnath yatra’
Srinagar, Jul 14: Panchayats and Municipalities here in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will complete their five-year term at the end of this year and it is expected that the government will take call on these elections after the completion of annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath yatra.
Sources said that there are chances that Panchayat and Municipal elections might be held in time from October to December this year as these bodies will complete their five-year term.
Sources said the Jammu and Kashmir Government will take a decision after taking security situations and other arrangements in consideration on when to hold the elections. “A call is expected only after completion of Shri Amarnath Ji pilgrimage,” sources maintained.
Sources also claimed that the government was slowly gearing up for conduct of Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies elections.
As per the Jammu based local daily report, the term of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) will complete on November 5 and that of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) on November 14 while terms of all Councils and Committees in Jammu and Kashmir will end between October-November.
Five-year term of the Panchayats will end on January 9, 2024.
Term of Urban Local Bodies is counted from the day of their first meeting while that of Panchayats is taken into account the day they were constituted.
In such a scenario, elections to Urban Local Bodies are required to be completed before the end of October and that of Panchayats in the middle of December this year.
Term of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) will end in October 2024 while the District Development Councils (DDCs) will complete their tenure in January 2026.
“Generally elections to all three tiers of Panchayati Raj System are held simultaneously. However, since elections to DDCs were held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir, there was a gap of two years in their and Panchayats term while there was a year’s difference in Panchayats and BDC term,” the report quoting sources said.
Parliament elections are also scheduled to be held in Jammu and Kashmir along with the country in April-May 2024.
“As per the procedure, separate revision in the electoral rolls has to be carried out for Panchayat polls while for Urban Local Bodies, the rolls can be extracted from the general Summary Revision,” sources said.
They added that separate revision for Panchayat elections is necessary as there are very small Panch constituencies and shifting of even one house from one Ward to another leads to objections. Therefore, separate revision will be carried out for the Panchayat polls.
Number of electorates in Jammu and Kashmir had gone up to 83.59 lakh when Special Summary Revision was carried out last year and final electoral rolls were published on November 25. The numbers could further go up when final rolls will be published on May 27.
However, for Urban Local Bodies, the Summary Revision Rolls will be the basic rolls but they will be put in domain for corrections and objections for Corporations, Councils and Committees.
Meanwhile the sources were, however, of the view that there seems to be no possibility of holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
Last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in November-December 2014 leading to formation of the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP-BJP coalition Government in March 2015 after hectic consultations. The BJP, however, withdrew support to Mehbooba Mufti led Government in July 2018 that led to imposition of President’s rule followed by Governor’s rule in the erstwhile State. During revocation of special status of erstwhile State and its bifurcation into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, J&K was given 90-member Legislative Assembly on August 5, 2019. However, first election to the Assembly is yet to be held as the Delimitation Commission took two years to complete the exercise which was followed by Special summary Revision and was completed on November 26, 2022.
