On a day that the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to hold Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) by September 30 next year, there was no word on the third tier of governance in the Union Territory. More than 700 panchayats comprising over 12,000 seats remain vacant since December 2018 in the Union Territory, the last time elections were held for the village bodies. The term of the panchayats ends on January 9, 2024.
It has been over nine years since the last Assembly election was held in J&K and the former State is under Central rule since June 2018 when the alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) collapsed. The government has so far remained evasive on the commitment to conduct the election despite claims that terror incidents have come down in J&K in the past four years.
After the special status of J&K under Article 370 of the Constitution was struck down by the Parliament in August 2019, the former State was bifurcated and downgraded into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh — the latter without a legislative Assembly. Home Minister Amit Shah said that a call on restoring the statehood of J&K will be taken after conducting the Assembly election in the UT.
The decision to turn the State into a UT was upheld on Monday by the top court, which accepted the assurance of the Centre to restore Statehood “at the earliest”.
‘No signs of panchayat polls’
Anil Sharma, Chairman, All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference, pointed out that the term of the current panchayats is all set to expire on January 9, 2024 and the elections that have to be announced at least three months prior, are yet to be notified.
The panchayat elections were held in the former State of J&K in 2018 and a total of 27,281 panches and sarpanches were elected. There are 12,776 vacant sarpanch and panch seats in J&K. Each panchayat has a sarpanch and seven ward members. The by-elections for the vacant seats were not held. These seats are mostly vacant in the south Kashmir districts of Kulgam, Shopian, Pulwama and Anantnag as candidates never showed up due to security reasons.
“Earlier, the government went door to door seeking nomination of candidates to fight the panchayat elections. Many were intimidated by calls given by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin who threatened to kill people if they participated in elections. But now the situation has changed, the government says there is normalcy and yet there are no signs of panchayat elections,” Mr. Sharma said.
The Supreme Court verdict is likely to have a bearing on the ongoing talks between civil society leaders from Ladakh and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The groups from Leh and Kargil have demanded restoration of Statehood for Ladakh and inclusion under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to get tribal status. The court on Monday also upheld the carving out of the UT of Ladakh under the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019.
On November 30, MHA constituted a high-powered committee led by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai where it for the first time agreed to examine the demand of civil society groups in Ladakh to provide “constitutional safeguards” for the UT.
A civil society leader said, on condition of anonymity, that their demand for Statehood will continue but the groups will deliberate on the SC order.
