18 seats to vote today, 446 elected unopposed
*Prohibitory orders imposed in Poonch
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 15: Former Member Parliament (MP), Cabinet Minister, legislators and BJP rebels are among 150 candidates who will try their luck in penultimate seventh phase of polling for 18 seats across 10 districts in the District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu region tomorrow.
Thirty Sarpanchs and 416 Panchs have been elected unopposed in the Panchayat by-elections in tomorrow’s seventh phase.
Click here to watch video
Suchetgarh and RS Pura Territorial Constituencies in Jammu district will witness high voltage contests tomorrow with many bigwigs in fray on both the seats.
Sham Choudhary, former Cabinet Minister from BJP, Tarlok Singh Bajwa, ex Rajya Sabha member of Congress, Taranjit Singh Tony, who is contesting as an Independent after having quit National Conference and Naresh Kumar Bittu (National Conference) are in the race for Suchetgarh Territorial seat going to vote tomorrow. While Choudhary has represented Suchetgarh seat twice in the Assembly, Bajwa was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a PDP leader in 2003. Recently, Bajwa along with others had quit PDP and joined BJP.
Former BJP MLA Prof Gharu Bhagat, who was expelled by the party in 2011 along with six others on the charges of cross-voting for National Conference in the Legislative Council elections, has been given mandate by the BJP from RS Pura DDC seat. Bushan Dogra, who was Vice Chairman of the Board in the Minister of State rank during PDP-BJP Government but had quit PDP to join the BJP, is contesting the election as an Independent candidate from RS Pura after being denied seat by the party. Candidates of other parties are also in the fray.
Charanjit Singh Jasrotia, who had won Kathua Assembly seat in 2008 as an Independent candidate and later joined BJP, is contesting Kathua Territorial seat as an Independent after being denied ticket by the BJP. Ragunandan Singh Jasrotia is the BJP candidate in Kathua, Mohan Singh of Dogra Swabhiman Front and Anu Dogra of Congress among others.
Former MLC Tassaduq Hussain is the PDP candidate on Rajouri seat, which is also going to polls tomorrow. Pitted against him is Mohammad Qasim, a retired Engineer from National Conference and BDC Chairman Darbar Choudhary, an Independent besides others. Significantly, there is no BJP candidate in Rajouri seat.
In Mendhar-A seat of Poonch district, former MLA from Mendhar Rafiq Khan’s son Nadeem Khan is candidate of PDP and has the backing of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) while in Mendhar-B constituency, an IAS officer’s father is contesting the polls as an Independent candidate. Advocate Nazir Choudhary of NC is PAGD candidate in Mendhar-B.
Meanwhile, District Magistrate Poonch Rahul Yadav today imposed restrictions under Section 144 CrPC in anticipation of disturbances in law and order situation in view of available inputs and past experiences in view of polling tomorrow in Mendhar-A and Mendhar-B constituencies.
“No person shall be allowed to enter or assemble within the radius of 100 meters of polling station where the DDC/Panchayat by-election is being conducted except voters and persons authorized under law,’’ the DM’s order said, adding the voters will be allowed entry after proper scrutiny and identity proof. They will immediately leave the polling stations after casting their votes.
It said no gathering/assembly or procession shall be allowed.
The order which came into effect at 7 pm today will remain in force till 7 pm tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a number of polling booths in Mendhar-A and Mendhar-B constituencies of Poonch district and Seri in Rajouri district, which will vote tomorrow, are located close to the LoC falling within shelling and firing range of Pakistan army.
SSP Poonch Ramesh Angral told the Excelsior that Dheri polling station in Poonch is located ahead of the fencing in Mendhar while Lanjote, Upper Golad, Basooni and Malikpur are close to the LoC and within firing and shelling range of Pakistan.
“A Contingency Plan is in place for these polling booths in case of shelling,’’ Angral said.
Kalal, Deeng and some other booths fall close to LoC in Seri seat of Rajouri district.
Eighteen seats of Jammu region which will witness voting tomorrow include Drabshalla-A and Drabshalla-B (Kishtwar), Bhalla (Doda), Ramban-A and Ramban-B (Ramban), Katra and Panthal (Reasi), Tikri and Udhampur-II (Udhampur), Kathua and Nagri (Kathua), Sumb (Samba), RS Pura and Suchetgarh (Jammu), Rajouri and Seri (Rajouri) and Mendhar-A and Mendhar-B (Poonch).
Along with the DDC polls, Panchayat by elections will be held tomorrow, State Election Commissioner (SEC) KK Sharma told a press conference here this evening.
A total of 30 Sarpanchs and 416 Panchs have been elected unopposed in seventh phase of elections tomorrow.
Sharma said voting will be held for 31 seats tomorrow including 13 in Kashmir division and 18 in Jammu.
He said 148 candidates, 34 of them women, are in fray for tomorrow’s election in Kashmir and 150 including 38 females in Jammu.
As many as 6.87 lakh electorates are eligible to cast their votes for whom 1852 polling stations have been set up—1068 in Kashmir and 784 in Jammu, the SEC said.
Contest will also be held on 69 Sarpanch seats for which 231 candidates including 79 women are in fray and 438 constituencies of Panch for which 1000 candidates are in the race including, 287 females, across Jammu and Kashmir, Sharma said.
Meanwhile, two people were booked by the police for destroying polling materials in Poonch district.
The Presiding Officer of the Keri polling station in the Balakote District Development Council constituency informed the Gursai police station about the destruction of polling materials at a booth on Sunday, sources said.
The application said that in the DDC election at the Government high school in Keri, two people, namely Gafoor Ahmad, agent of Rabia Younis Khan (Independent), and Wahidullha Khan, polling agent of Saima Khan (Independent), attacked the polling staff and snatched ballot papers in order to cast bogus votes, the officials said.
Ballot papers and other polling materials were torn apart by the duo, who later escaped from the spot, they said.
A case has been registered in this connection and an investigation taken up, the sources added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
