J&K oppn cries foul, calls BDC polls a sham

The Congress and other political parties on Monday opposed the move to hold block development council (BDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on party lines, saying how can the polls be held when top politicians remain under detention following revocation of Constitution’s Article 370 last month.

J&K’s chief electoral officer, Shailendra Kumar, on Sunday announced that the BDC polls will be held on October 24. Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti are among top politicians under detention following the revocation of Article 370 last month.

J&K Congress chief, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, said the exercise will be nothing but selection and not election when only the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are free while leaders from other parties are under house arrest. “…[It will be] just one-way traffic,” he said. “If needed, we will approach the President.”

A leader of Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party called it a completely undemocratic. “With politicians from opposition under house arrest, it would be a walkover for the ruling party,” the leader said. A leader of Abdullah’s National Conference refused to comment.

Shafiq Mir, AJKPC chairperson demanded that the BDC polls be conducted on a non-party basis: “Panchayats are community institutions and not political identities.”

There are 26,629 voters in the 316 blocks across the 22 districts of J&K, of which 8,313 are female and 18,316 are male.