Despite boycott calls, Municipality Election takes place in full swing at Jammu & Kashmir

After 13 years, the local body elections are taking place at Jammu & Kashmir state. In this four-phased election which will end on October 16, people of Jammu & Kashmir will elect their local representatives. A total of 2990 candidates are in the fray.

Currently, the election is being held at 422 wards of the state’s 1,100 municipal wards. A very heavy security is deployed at all the electoral booths around the state, because of threats of attacks from the Militant groups. Around 240 candidates have been elected unopposed in the Kashmir Valley.

The two major political parties – PDP and National Conference have opposed the elections, accusing the Central Government of not taking a strong protection of the article 35-a of the Indian constitution, which is at present having a legal challenge at the supreme court. This article empowers the state of Jammu & Kashmir to determine permanent residents and give special rights to privileges to them.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Since there are no contestants to contest, there is no election held in Chadoora, Khansahib and Kulgam, Devsar, Qazigund, and Achabal in South Kashmir. BJP has won in 7 municipality committees until now.