Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 19: The National Conference and Congress, which ruled the State during past six years, will be the biggest losers in terms of seats in the Legislative Council after election process for 11 seats-eight in biennial category and by-elections-is completed.
Meanwhile, nomination papers of 14 candidates of all major opposition parties-PDP, BJP and NC were found in order while papers of lone Independent candidate Ajay Singh Chandel were rejected during scrutiny today. February 21 is last date for withdrawal of nomination papers when the Returning Officer will declare five candidates formally as elected unopposed to the Legislative Council. Election for six seats will be held on March 2.
Official sources told the Excelsior that out of 11 seats of the Legislative Council going to the polls, the National Conference held highest number of six followed by two each by PDP and Congress and one by the Nationalist Panthers Party (NPP).
Going by the arithmetic in the new Assembly, the National Conference was sure to lose four seats and the number could even go up to five while Congress and NPP will draw a blank. The Congress has not fielded any candidate in the elections as per seat sharing agreement with the NC while the NPP has no MLA in the Assembly and therefore was not contesting.
The biggest beneficiaries will, of course, be the PDP and BJP, who were contesting elections in alliance with each other. PDP has already won three and BJP two seats unopposed as no party fielded candidates against these seats. Out of remaining six seats, PDP and BJP were sure to get four while the number could even go up to five.
The NC was sure to win one seat of Jammu and can get another from Kashmir if three Independent candidates support its candidate. In any case, the NC would win maximum of two seats, which it was contesting and its number will be down by four in the Legislative Council as out of 11 seats going to polls, it held maximum of six including Ajatshatru Singh, Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardhy, Aga Syed Ahmad Rizvi and Vijay Bakaya (all biennial seats), Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Majid Bhat Laram (by-election seats).
While Rana and Laram have been elected to the Assembly, Ajatshatru Singh has since joined the BJP.
Outgoing Congress MLCs included BR Kundal, former Power Minister and Chief Secretary and Narboo Gialchan. The Congress has not fielded any candidate for 11 seats and was supporting both candidates of National Conference-Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo on Jammu seat and Qaiser Jamsheed Lone on Kashmir seat. The Congress support to NC was in lieu of the latter’s support to Leader of Opposition and Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad for recent Rajya Sabha election.
PDP has two seats from the 11 going to polls including Syed Asgar Ali and Mohammad Ashraf Mir. The PDP was almost sure to win five seats including three which it has won unopposed. The party will gain three seats in the Upper House. Asgar Ali is retiring after completing full term of six years while Mohammad Ashraf Mir has been elected to the Assembly. He had two years term left in the House.
The major beneficiary of the Council elections is the BJP, which has opened its account in the Legislative Council for the first time in past 19 years. BJP’s former State president Daya Krishan Kotwal (now dead) was the first party leader to become MLC in 1996 when election was held for all 22 seats as all members of the Upper House had retired during about seven years spell of President’s Rule.
Since then, the BJP hadn’t been able to get even a single leader elected to the Legislative Council. The BJP had eight MLAs in 1996, one in 2002 and 11 in 2008. While Congress with just 12 MLAs managed to win Rajya Sabha seat on February 7, the BJP with 11 MLAs couldn’t get even a single leader elected as MLC from 2008 to 2014.
The BJP has already won two seats unopposed (Chering Dorjey and Sofi Yusuf) and was sure to get two more if not three. This will be for the first time since 1996 that the BJP leaders will be entering the Legislative Council. It may be mentioned here that Shamsher Singh Manhas had won the first ever BJP leader to enter Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir.
The NPP had managed to get its leader Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah elected to the Legislative Council in 2009 though having just three MLAs. The NPP candidate was supported by 21 members PDP in lieu of NPP’s support to PDP in Rajya Sabha election. The PDP had failed to win the Rajya Sabha seat.
Rafiq Shah, who is retiring next month, had joined the PDP on the eve of Assembly elections. All three NPP MLAs had lost the Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, nomination papers of 14 candidates-six each from PDP and BJP and two from NC were found in order during scrutiny of the documents. The nomination papers of lone Independent candidate Ajay Singh Chandel on Jammu seats were rejected as they hadn’t been supported by mandatory signature of 10 MLAs. The nomination of an Independent candidate is required to be supported by 10 MLAs, which is not the condition for recognized parties.
Of 14 candidates, five have been elected unopposed to the Council as the NC-Congress have not fielded nominees against them. The Returning Officer said five candidates will be handed over letters of election only on February 21, the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers, which was technical formality.
The candidates elected unopposed are Chering Dorjey and Sofi Yusuf (both BJP), Inayat Ali, Firdous Tak and Yasir Reshi (all PDP).
Now, five candidates were in fray for four seats of Jammu province including Vibodh Gupta, Romesh Arora and Charanjit Singh Khalsa (BJP), Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo (NC) and Surinder Choudhary (PDP).
For two seats of Kashmir, four candidates were in the race including Javed Ahmad Mirchal and Saif-ud-Din Bhat (both PDP), Qaiser Jamsheed Lone (NC) and Dr Drakshan Andrabi (BJP).
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