Srinagar : Congress has emerged single largest party in Srinagar Municipal Corporation election results and Independents won majority of 49 seats in this 74 ward member corporation but in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Jammu Municipal Corporation polls. Counting took place at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC). Congress has made a clean sweep in Leh municipal committee elections and BJP has drew a blank.
Of the 74 wards in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Independent candidates won 49 seats, Congress got 12 seats, BJP secured four seats, while in one ward no votes were polled and 8 seats remained uncontested. In the 75-seat Jammu Municipal Corporation polls, the BJP secured 43 seats, Congress won 14 while Independent candidates got 18 seats.
In south Kashmir’s Devsar Municipal Committee (MC), BJP won all the eight wards as its Muslim candidates were elected from the area. Likewise from Qazigund Municipal Committee, four BJP candidates were elected while three seats were vacant.. The BJP has largely won the seats by fielding candidates who are not known to people or by making the KPs contest.
From Municipal Council Sopore, which is represented by Congress in the Assembly, BJP has won 7 seats. In one ward, an independent candidate was elected while 13 other wards are vacant. Congress’ Sopore MLA, Haji Abdul Rasheed, also said that the party didn’t field any candidate in Sopore.
Even from the Municipal Committee Dooru, the BJP won two seats while 15 were bagged by the Congress. From Dooru, Congress state president GA Mir had lost the 2014 Assembly elections to PDP by only a thin margin. Likewise from Mattan in Anantang, the saffron party won eight wards while one seat was won by Congress and an independent candidate each. From Municipal Committee Bandipora, from where Congress is represented by its MLA Usman Majeed, BJP has won three wards while in 12 wards, Congress candidates were elected and two have been won by independents.
The BJP candidates even won from the separatist hotbeds of the southern part of Kashmir. All the 17 wards of Municipal Committee Shopian have been won by the BJP’s Kashmiri Pandit candidates.
The saffron party’s candidates were even declared elected in wards of the Municipal Committee of Tral, hometown of slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani. Out of the 13 wards of the Tral Municipal body, nine wards remained vacant as none filed the nominations while three wards have been won by Kashmiri Pandit (KP) candidates on BJP ticket and one by an independent candidate.
From Municipal Committee Pulwama, a BJP Muslim candidate has won from two wards of Prichoo and Sirnoo. In Municipal Committee Pampore, three wards have been won by BJP’s KP candidates, while a woman from a Muslim party has been elected from another ward, and the other was won by an Independent. 12 seats are vacant.
The BJP has even won from the three wards of Municipal Committee Langate, bastion of Awami Ittehad party (AIP) president, Er Rashid. Other 10 wards have been won by the independent candidates.
The contest in Kashmir has been largely between the independents backed by People’s Conference (PC) chairman, Sajad Gani Lone, Congress and the BJP. Both the NC and PDP have boycotted the polls, claiming that Government of India (GoI) was trying to scrap Article 35-A, which bars outsiders from owning properties in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) which has emerged as the single largest party of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) said that they were ready to join hands with ‘secular-minded’ winning candidates or groups to form the new municipal body. “I would appeal all the winning candidates who have secular ideology and believe in this mission of not having a communal (forces) backed committee or mayor at least in Srinagar (Municipal Corporation). We are ready to go with or take along any group which comes forward to stop communal forces,” JKPCC president Ghulam Ahmad Mir told reporters in Srinagar.
Election to the urban local body polls was held in four phases from October 8 to October 16. There are over 3,000 candidates who contested the 1,145 wards across the state. In Kashmir, which has 598 wards, at least 231 candidates were elected unopposed while no candidates contested in 181 wards. Three seats have been declared so far.
The voter turnout in the polls was low, with 8.3 per cent votes cast in the first phase on October 8, 3.4 per cent in the second phase on October 10, 3.49 per cent in the third phase on October 13 and 4.2 per cent in the last phase on October 16. Over 30 per cent wards in these ULBs spread across Kashmir valley — 185 wards — will remain unrepresented as no nomination papers were received for them. Meanwhile, 231 wards were those which saw no polling as solitary candidate in each of these wards was declared winner unopposed.
The Congress has won 18 wards in Ladakh region, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to make inroad in the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections held earlier this month.
The Congress made a clean sweep by winning all the 13 wards in Leh Municipal Committee (LMC) while it bagged five seats in Kargil Municipal Committee (KMC), where eight wards have gone to Independent (IND) candidates.
He said that all the 13 Congress candidates, contesting ULB polls for LMC, were declared winners. “The BJP failed to open its account in the LMC,” he said.
“In Kargil, out of 13 wards, Congress won five while eight were bagged by independent candidates,” he said, adding BJP failed to to open account in Kargil as well. Independent candidates will hold the key in electing the chairman in KMC.
The Ladakh Parliamentary constituency is represented by BJP’s Thupstan Chhewang in the Lok Sabha. However, the Congress won three of the four Assembly seats in Ladakh region during the state elections held in 2014. The other Assembly constituency is represented by an independent MLA.
