Jammu and Kashmir Civic polls: Counting of votes for 52 civic bodies begin; results to be declared today

The civic body polls of the Jammu and Kashmir were held in four phases and under tight security and today the counting in underway of the 52 civic bodies.

The result of the election of 79 municipal bodies will be announced today with an electorate of about 17 lakhs. A total of 3372 nominations were filed for 1145 wards during this month.

The election was boycotted by the two major parties of the state, namely Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC) over the Article 35A of the Constitution which gives special powers to the “residents of the state.” The case is pending in the Supreme Court and will be decided by the presiding Constitution bench.

“Article 35A disallows people from residing in Jammu and Kashmir, buying or owning immovable property in the state, settling permanently, or getting state government jobs.”

As the polls were boycotted by the PDP and NC, hence out of 79 civic bodies, voting was not held in 27 of them in the valley because at some places there were no candidates or only one candidate had filed the nominations.

The direct fight is now between the two national party’s namely Congress and the Bhartiya Janta Party which can be seen as a mandate or referendum of the rule of the BJP-PDP alliance in the past or even whether the residents of Jammu and Kashmir want a change in power center.

The voter turn out recorded to be the highest was in the first phase (56.7 per cent), while in the valley it was the least which was during the fourth phase (4.2 per cent).

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