Stage set for Legislative Council elections in J-K

As many as 33,450 panchayat members will decide the fate of 37 candidates in fray for four MLC seats tomorrow as stage is set for the Legislative Council elections in Jammu and Kashmir under the panchayat quota after a gap of 38 years.

Heavy security arrangements have been put in place as para-military and state police personnel have been deployed in sensitive areas to deal with any untoward incident during polling, police officials said.

As many as 27 companies of CRPF and 40 companies of police and armed police have been deployed for the security and monitoring during voting.

Security has been tightened in view of recent incidents of militancy during past few weeks and deployment of CRPF and police has been completed in most of the places where polling will be held tomorrow, they said, adding that there were no reports of any untoward incident.

The polling material and election staff has already reached to far-flung areas of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Kathua, Reasi and Poonch areas of Jammu region, an official said.
The state is going to MLC polls for four Legislative Council seats under panchayat quota after a gap of 38 years as the  last panchayat quota legislative council elections were held in 1974.

The contest is set to a be multi-cornered one, with all parties fielding their candidates and the coalition partners contesting two seats each.
The opposition parties, including PDP and Panthers Party, have fielded candidates on all four seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting on three seats -- two from Jammu region and one from Kashmir valley.

The Bahujan Samaj Party has also fielded three candidates.

As many as 15,628 panchayat members will elect two MLCs in Jammu division from a total of 21 candidates, while 17,912 members will cast their votes to elect two members from the 16 candidates in fray from Kashmir division.

Counting of votes will take place in Jammu and Srinagar on December 6 and the EVMs will be shifted from all district headquarters to the two cities on December 4 and 5.