In 34 members Council, 19 vacancies to be filled in March

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 28: More than half of the members of Legislative Council were retiring or would relinquish their office on being elected to the Legislative Assembly leading to 19 vacancies—eight in Nomination Quota and rest 11 to be filled by elections to be conducted by the Election Commission of India.
The House of Elders has total strength of 36 but its present strength is 34 as it has two vacancies—one each from Jammu and Kashmir divisions from the quota of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) members. The vacancies had arisen as NC-Congress Government failed to hold the ULB elections during its six years long tenure, which were due in January 2010.
Out of 34 members, four MLCs have been elected to the Legislative Assembly and would give up membership of the Upper House. They included Devender Singh Rana, Deputy Chairman of Council Javed Rana and Abdul Majeed Laram, all NC members, who have been elected to the Assembly from Nagrota, Mendhar and Homeshalibugh Assembly constituencies respectively and PDP MLC Mohammad Ashraf Mir who has been elected from Sonawar Assembly segment.
Legislative Council chairman Amrit Malhotra (Congress) is among those retiring in March while Deputy Chairman of the Council Javed Rana (NC) has been elected to the Assembly. Both these posts of Presiding Officers in the Council will also fall vacant but the new dispensation would require majority to get their nominees elected to the post, which would become bone of contention between upcoming ruling and opposition parties.
Apart from them, NC Nominated MLCs Sheikh Ghulam Rasool and Ajatshatru Singh had recently resigned from the House after they quit NC and joined PDP and BJP respectively while Congress Nominated member Subash Gupta had retired in April this year. While Javed Rana, Ghulam Rasool and Ajatshatru were due to retire in March next, Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Majid Laram has more than four years term. Similarly, Ashraf Mir had over two years term.
Three MLCs, who would be elected against the vacancies of Devender Rana, Laram and Ashraf Mir would only get their remaining term i.e. four years from March (when the elections would be held) against the vacancies of Rana and Laram and two years for Ashraf Mir.
Apart from them, the new Government which comes into the power, will be entitled to nominate eight new members to Legislative Council. Eight MLCs nominated by NC-Congress Government would retire in March 2015. In addition, eight elected members would also retire simultaneously in March.
Official sources told the Excelsior that there will be a total of 19 vacancies in the Upper House by March leaving only 15 sitting members. Of 19 members, eight will be nominated by the new Government, eight others will be elected for full six years term while three others will get remaining term i.e. two will get four years against the vacancies of Devender Rana and Abdul Majid Laram while one would get two years term against the vacancy of Ashraf Mir of PDP.
The parties which form next Alliance Government in Jammu and Kashmir would get away with majority of vacancies including eight seats of Nomination quota and rest in election category.
The new Alliance Government could reach close to the majority mark of 18 in the House after elections and nominations as PDP and NC, if they become part of the Government, already have few members in the House of Elders.
Others members of Legislative Council retiring in March-April next year are Ajay Sadhotra (National Conference-Nominated), Bashir Ahmad Magray (Congress-Nominated) Aga Sayeed (National Conference-Elected), B R Kundal (Congress-Elected), Khalid Nujeeb Suhrawardhy (National Conference-Elected), Nurbo Gyaltsan (Congress-Elected), Ravinder Sharma (Congress-Nominated), Rafiq Ahmad Shah (Nationalist Panthers Party-Elected, now in PDP), Ghulam Qadir Pardesi (National Conference-Nominated), Vijay Bakaya (National Conference-Elected) and Syed Asgar Ali (PDP-Elected).
Elections to 11 posts of MLCs would be conducted by the Election Commission of India.
The Legislative Council has a total strength of 36. Of them, 22 members are elected by the MLAs (11 each from Jammu and Kashmir divisions) with one seat each reserved for Leh, Doda and Poonch. Eight members to the Council are nominated by the Governor on the recommendations of the Government. Four MLCs (two each from Jammu and Kashmir divisions) are elected by the Panchayat members while two MLCs (one each from Jammu and Kashmir divisions) are elected by the members of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
There are two vacancies in the Council from the quote of ULB members as elections to them, which were due in January 2010, have not been held.
Elections to ULBs were last held in January 2005 and the ULB members had elected two MLCs few months later including Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of PDP from Kashmir and Arvinder Singh Micky of Congress from Jammu, Bhat had quit the Upper House membership in 2009 after he was elected to the Assembly while Micky had completed his term in November 2011.

Follow our WhatsApp channel