Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 21: Even as BJP candidate Dr Drakhshan Andrabi withdrew from the race leaving three PDP-NC candidates in direct fight for two seats of Kashmir province, the PDP-BJP combine candidates were, however, pitted against each other for one out of four seats of Jammu province as none of them opted out of the contest on last day for withdrawal of nomination papers today making battle for six seats of Legislative Council, the election for which will be held on March 2, interesting.
Meanwhile, as expected, Returning Officer for the Council elections, Mohammad Ramzan, who also happens to be the Secretary Legislative Assembly, today formally declared five candidates of BJP-PDP as elected unopposed to the Legislative Council handing them over the `Declaration of Winner’. As the NC-Congress hadn’t fielded any candidate against five nominees of PDP-BJP combine on single notification elections, they had been declared as winners on February 18, the last date for filing of nomination papers but an official announcement of their election was made today, the last date for withdrawal of papers, by the Returning Officer by handing them over the certificate of election to the Upper House.
As reported, five winners included two from seats reserved for Leh and Kargil (within Kashmir province) and three on by-election seats. They were Chering Dorjey (Leh) and Sofi Yusuf (Kashmir), both BJP, Inayat Ali (Kargil), Firdous Tak (Jammu) and Yasir Reshi (Kashmir), all PDP.
Dorjey and Inayat Ali will get full term of six years as they have been elected against regular vacancies (biennial category) to the Legislative Council. However, Sofi Yusuf and Firdous Tak will get four years term while Reshi will get two years term as they were elected against by-election vacancies under which only remaining term of the candidates, whose election to the Assembly caused the vacancy, is given to the candidates.
Sofi Yusuf has been elected against the vacancy caused by the election of NC leader Abdul Majid Bhat Laram to the Assembly while Firdous Tak was elected against the vacancy created due to the election of another NC leader Devender Singh Rana to the Lower House. Reshi was elected against the seat vacated by PDP leader Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Rana and Laram had little over four years term left, which Tak and Sofi Yusuf will get while Ashraf Mir had over two years term left, which Reshi will get, sources said.
As the victory of these five candidates was certain even in case of contest, the NC-Congress alliance preferred not to field candidates against them unlike February 7 Rajya Sabha elections on which the two parties (NC-Congress) had put up candidates even on the seats considered safe for PDP and BJP.
After unopposed election of five candidates, an interesting battle now will be witnessed on four seats of Jammu province for which one separate election will be held and two seats of Kashmir region for which another election will be held on March 2.
While BJP candidate Drakhshan Andrabi today withdrew from the contest from two seats of Kashmir leaving direct contest between two candidates of PDP and one from National Conference, the battle remained interesting for four seats of Jammu province, where five candidates were in fray including three from BJP and one each from PDP and NC.
The candidates in fray for Jammu seats included Vibodh Gupta, Romesh Arora and Charanjit Singh Khalsa (all BJP), Surinder Choudhary (PDP) and Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo (NC) while three contestants for two seats of Kashmir were Javed Ahmad Mirchal and Saif-ud-Din Bhat (both PDP) and Qaiser Jamsheed Lone (NC).
Dr Drakhshan Andrabi of BJP, who had also filed papers for Kashmir seat, withdrew from the contest on the directions of the party high command. However, neither PDP nor BJP withdrew any candidates from four seats of Jammu, a result of which they were pitted against each other.
Out of four seats of Jammu, the victory of NC candidate Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo is sure on one seat as he would be safe with 27 votes of NC-Congress combine leaving the battle between four candidates of PDP and BJP to fight it out for three remaining seats.
Going by the arithmetic in the Assembly, the PDP and BJP can get only three candidates through to the Council but they have fielded four including Vibodh Gupta, Romesh Arora and Charanjit Singh (all BJP) and Surinder Choudhary (PDP). The PDP-BJP combine has 57 votes, which they can trifurcate into 19 each to make their three candidates victorious. While Kitchloo is safe with even 20 votes though he has confirmed support of 27 MLAs and his number could go up to even 30 if he gets the support of three Independents and Others, who had voted for Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in Rajya Sabha elections, one of the four PDP-BJP candidates is sure to lose as none of them withdrew the papers on last day of withdrawal today.
For two seats of Kashmir, the battle will almost be replica of February 7 Rajya Sabha elections, which PDP and Congress had won while the BJP candidate had lost. Congress candidate and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had polled 30 votes (NC 15, Congress 12 and Independents 3) while PDP had polled 29 and BJP 28 votes.
The only difference this time is that there were only two PDP candidates in the fray-Javed Ahmad Mirchal and Saif-ud-Din Bhat unlike the Rajya Sabha elections, where one each candidate of PDP and BJP-Nazir Ahmad Laway and Chander Mohan Sharma respectively were in the race.
Sources said Qaiser Lone can win one of the seats if all three Independent and Others including Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, Hakim Yasin and Engineer Rashid voted for him like they had done for Azad. However, if they changed sides, Qaiser’s victory can become difficult. The PDP is sure to win one of the Kashmir seats while victory of its second candidate would depend upon three Independent candidates, whose vote is crucial for both PDP and NC. If the Independent candidates announce their support for NC, the PDP would decide as to which candidates out of two (Mirchal and Bhat), it would like to go through to the Council.
The elections for eight biennial vacancies are being held as an equal number of MLCs are completing their term between March 9 and 16. They are Ajatshatru Singh (NC now BJP), BR Kundal (Congress), Syed Asgar Ali (PDP) and Khalid Najib Suhrawardhy (NC), all four in Jammu province, Narboo Gialchan (Congress), a seat reserved for Ladakh tehsil of Kashmir province, Aga Syed Ahmad Rizvi (NC), a seat reserved for Kargil tehsil of Kashmir province, Vijay Bakaya (NC) and Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah (NPP now PDP), two seats of Kashmir province.
By-election for three seats was necessitated due to election of an equal number of MLCs-Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Majid Bhat Laram (both NC) and Mohammad Ashraf Mir (PDP) to the Legislative Assembly in the last year’s elections.
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