Elections to be held after MLAs take oath
PDP-BJP won 3, Cong one in last polls in 2015
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 2: Following successful culmination of Assembly elections, Jammu and Kashmir is all set to have representation of elected members in the Rajya Sabha after more than three and half years as new MLAs will elect their four representatives to the Upper House whenever the Election Commission of India (ECI) issues a notification.
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Ghulam Ali Khatana is presently lone Rajya Sabha member hailing from Jammu and Kashmir but he is a nominated MP.
The MLAs become eligible to cast their votes to elect four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir after taking oath, officials told the Excelsior.
Under Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019 passed by the Parliament, the UT was allotted 90-member Assembly, five Lok Sabha and four Rajya Sabha seats. J&K already had four Rajya Sabha seats. However, it had six Lok Sabha seats which were reduced to five as Ladakh was made the UT and one seat was given to it.
Last election to four seats of Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir was held in February 2015 with then BJP-PDP alliance winning three seats and NC-Congress one. Fayaz Ahmad Mir and Nazir Ahmad Laway (both PDP), Shamsher Singh Manhas (BJP) and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of J&K and then in Congress were elected. BJP’s Chander Mohan Sharma had lost the election.
All these four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir completed their six years term in February 2021. Since then, there has been no elected MP from J&K in the Rajya Sabha in the absence of Assembly.
As per the officials, the process for filling up of four vacancies of Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir will be set in motion by the Election Commission only after the MLAs take oath. A total of three notifications are issued for the Rajya Sabha elections under which one election is held for two seats while two elections are conducted for one seat each.
Composition of the Legislative Assembly will decide which parties win the four Rajya Sabha seats.
In February 2015 when the BJP and PDP were about to enter into an alliance to form the Government, the two parties had won three seats while NC and Congress got the fourth seat. PDP had 28 MLAs, BJP 26, National Conference 15, Congress 12, People’s Conference two and CPM and AIP one each. Rest were Independents.
All four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir who retired in February 2021 had been elected in the elections held for four seats in February 2015 during Governor’s Rule after Assembly elections in November-December 2014. The PDP-BJP had formed the Government on March 1, 2015 after stitching an alliance as well as the Common Minimum Programme.
As J&K was under President’s Rule from 1989 to 1996 also, the Rajya Sabha members from the then State had retired in 1992 and 1994.
While Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Shabir Ahmad Salaria had completed their term in October 1992, Ghulam Rasool Mattoo and Rajendra Prasad Jain had retired in April 1994 after their six years term.
From April 1994 to October 1996, there was no representative from Jammu and Kashmir in the Rajya Sabha. However, after the Assembly elections and formation of Government by Dr Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference in October 1996, Dr Karan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saif-ud-Din Soz and Sharif-ud-Din Shariq were elected to the Rajya Sabha from J&K in November 1996.
In fact, Ghulam Nabi Azad almost remained a member of the Upper House since November 1996 till February 2021 barring two-and-half-year period when he was appointed as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir heading the Congress-PDP coalition Government. He had quit the Rajya Sabha membership after he became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in November 2005.
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