Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 10: The Election Commission of India (ECI) today announced schedule for elections to 11 seats of Legislative Council, eight of which were regular vacancies to be filled by biennial elections while three others were by-election vacancies, which had arisen due to election of three MLCs to the Legislative Assembly in the recent elections.
According to an official handout released by Dhirendra Ojha, Director ECI, the elections for all 11 seats will be held on March 2 from 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes will be taken up the same day from 5 pm onwards. Entire election process will be completed by March 7.
Official sources told the Excelsior that notifications for the elections will be issued on February 12 by Legislative Assembly Secretary Mohammad Ramzan, who will be designated as the Returning Officer for the elections. February 18 is last date for filing of nomination papers. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on February 19 while candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on February 21.
Eight regular vacancies for which elections will be held are-Ajatshatru Singh (NC now BJP), BR Kundal (Congress), Syed Asgar Ali (PDP) and Khalid Najib Suhrawardhy (NC), all four in Jammu province for which one notification will be issued, Narboo Gialchan (Congress), a seat reserved for Ladakh tehsil of Kashmir province for which one notification will be issued, Aga Syed Ahmad Rizvi (NC), a seat reserved for Kargil tehsil of Kashmir province, for which one notification will be issued, Vijay Bakaya (NC) and Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah (NPP now PDP), two seats of Kashmir province for which one notification will be issued.
All these eight MLCs will complete their term between March 9 to 16. A total of four notifications will be issued for eight regular vacancies of the Legislative Council.
Sources said the Election Commission of India will fill three vacancies through by-elections, which have arisen due to election of three members of the Legislative Council to the Assembly. They are Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Majeed Bhat Laram (both NC) and Mohammad Ashraf Mir (PDP).
The Returning Officer will issue three separate notifications to fill these vacancies. Mir and Laram’s vacancies belonged to Kashmir province while Rana’s vacancy belonged to Jammu province. The candidates getting elected against the vacancies of Rana and Laram will get four years term i.e. up to March 16, 2019 while the candidate getting elected against the vacancy of Ashraf Mir will get only two years term i.e. April 19, 2017.
As per the provisions, the candidates getting elected in the by-elections get only remaining term of the MLC, whose election to the Assembly or resignation caused the vacancy.
Excelsior had only a day before reported that seven notifications will be issued for election to 11 seats of Legislative Council and the PDP-BJP combine can easily win nine to 10 seats.
Apart from this, the new Government also had to nominate eight MLCs to the Legislative Council through the Governor.
Sources said the PDP-BJP combine would be in a position to win nine to 10 seats comfortably going by the equations in the Legislative Assembly. The prospectus of the newly formed alliance would get further boost if the Government is formed before the elections as the Alliance can nominate two women MLAs to the Assembly, who also have the right to cast votes for the Legislative Council elections though they can’t vote for Rajya Sabha polls.
Just like the Alliance won two seats of Shamsher Singh Manhas (BJP) and Mir Mohammad Fayaz (PDP) for Rajya Sabha without much contest as separate notifications had been issued for them, the Alliance candidates would win five seats comfortably against five notifications for single seats including one seat each reserved for Leh and Kargil and three seats, which have fallen vacant due to election of three MLCs as MLAs.
On sixth notification, which will be issued for four seats of Jammu region, the PDP-BJP alliance would be in a position to wrest three seats while NC-Congress combine together can win one seat. The PDP-BJP, which have confirmed support of 57 MLAs can get their candidates polled 19 votes each while NC-Congress combine have maximum of 30 votes (which were polled by Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad yesterday in Rajya Sabha elections). Even if NC-Congress combine split the votes to two candidates, they can manage the victory of one candidate only as PDP-BJP combine nominees would have 19 votes each.
For seventh notification for two seats of Kashmir division, the votes could be repeated just like yesterday’s results for two seats of Rajya Sabha unless the election takes place after the Government formation and PDP-BJP get two extra votes of nominated women MLAs. In this notification, the PDP-BJP combine would be sure of one seat and could get even two with the help of nominated women MLAs and if they managed to get one Independents out of three, who votes for Azad yesterday, on their side.
Overall, sources said, the PDP-BJP combine would easily win nine out of 11 seats on which elections will be held and even 10 with some extra support.
Eight nominated MLCs, who are completing their term in March-April are Amrit Malhotra (Chairman-Congress), Javed Rana (former Deputy Chairman-NC, who has ceased to be the MLC after his election to the Assembly), Sheikh Ghulam Rasool (NC, now in PDP), Subash Gupta (Congress, who had completed his term last year), Ajay Sadhotra (National Conference), Bashir Ahmad Magray (Congress), Ravinder Sharma (Congress) and Ghulam Qadir Pardesi (National Conference).
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