Jammu and Kashmir likely to hold BDC polls from November

Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to hold the first-ever election to 20 district development councils (DDCs) in November-December to complete third tier of Panchayats.

On October 17, the Centre amended the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, to facilitate the setting up of DDCs, the members of which will be directly elected by voters in the Union Territory. In the absence of an elected government in the UT, these Councils are set to become a new unit of governance in Jammu and Kashmir.

Official sources told DH that elections to the DDCs will be held along with by-elections to nearly 1,300 vacant sarpanch and panch seats in the UT.

“Exercise to hold elections to newly announced DDCs has been set into motion. A formal announcement is likely to be made by the end of this month or early November,” they said and added the elections are likely to commence from the end of November and last about a month.

Though the government is yet to take a final call, sources said, the DDC elections are likely to be held on a non-party basis which can neutralize any impact from a likely boycott call from regional political parties like National Conference, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and others.

While Panchayat elections in 2018 were held on a non-party basis, the municipal polls were held on party-basis. Later, the Block Development Council (BDC) polls, which formed the second-tier of Panchayats, were also held on party-basis.

It will be the first electoral exercise after the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded as UT on August 5 last year. The holding of BDC polls will complete the third tier of Panchayats for the first time in the history of J&K as never in the past the erstwhile Union Territory had elected DDCs, which used to be headed by the Chief Minister and Cabinet Ministers.

The term of the DDC will be five years, and the electoral process will allow for reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. The BDC elections are evidently intended to kick-start the political process in the UT.

J&K has been under the central rule since June 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the alliance government with the PDP. The special status of the erstwhile state under Article 370 was revoked in August 2019 by the Parliament and it was bifurcated into the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.