Municipal Polls: 1283 candidates in fray for 422Wards going to polls in Phase-I, says CEO

Srinagar: The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shaleen Kabra today expressed satisfaction over the response shown by the contestants vis-à-vis filing nominations for the upcoming Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls in J&K.
Addressing media-persons at his office here this evening, Kabrasaid substantial number of nominations have been filed across the State including Kashmir valley.
He said for three wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation going to polls in the first Phase on October 8, eleven nominations have been filed, out of which eight were found valid after scrutiny. In the second phase 20 wards are going to polls in Srinagar and the number of nominations filed till date for this Phase is 88, he said.
For the 3rd Phase in Srinagar, he said 85 nominations have been filed for 26 wards. He said the final figure of nominations will be announced after all the formalities are complete.
Kabra said for Srinagar Municipal Corporation, there is hardly any ward which is going unopposed.
He said for the first phase nomination process has ended and the list of contesting candidates is being finalized while the process for second phase is on and will end with the list of contesting candidates being finalized on October 1, 2018.
While giving details regarding nominations filed so far across the state, the CEO said that for the first phase, a total of 422 wards out of 1145 wards in the state are going to polls. He said for this Phase 1473 nominations were filed and after scrutiny 1441 nominations were declared valid.
He added that subsequently there were some withdrawals also and 1283 contestants are now in the fray for these 422 wards in entire state.
Kabra said, for the second phase, 384 wards of 30 municipal bodies are going to polls for which 1198 nominations were filed out of which 1177 nominations were found valid after the scrutiny. And since there is still time to withdraw the nominations, so we will have final list of contesting candidates after 3 pm on Monday, he added.
The CEO said that the total number of nominations so far received, in all the phases are put together has crossed 3400 approximately. And for Phase 3rdthe last date of nomination was today while for phase four the last date of nomination is October 01, 2018.
In district Anantnag 66 nominations were filed out of which 58 were found valid after scrutiny. Baramulla has 40 while Bandipora has 48 nominations.
Kabra added that in case of Jammu province, a total number of 743 nominations have been filed in eight places comprising of 454 wards both JMC as well as municipal committees.
Rajouri and Poonch too have been in the first phase where they will be going to polls on November 8. There are one uncontested in contestant in Poonch and three in Thannamandi and one in Nowshera, he added.
Pertinently, the polling for Municipal Polls-2018 in going to be held in four Phases starting from 8th October 2018. Polling date for Phase-II is 10th October, for Phase-III, 13th October and for the final Phase on 16th October 2018.