In Valley, every tenth ULB winner is a Kashmiri Pandit

SRINAGAR: The recently concluded Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls witnessed participation of many Kashmiri Pandit candidates with majority of them registering thumping victory from various municipal committees across the Valley.

In 598 wards in the Valley, out of which 177 wards didn’t find a single candidate, Kashmiri Pandits who largely contested election on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets have grabbed at least 43 wards out of the total 413 wards which were up for grabs.

The largest victory for the BJP with Kashmiri Pandits as their candidates came in militancy hot-bed south Kashmiri’s Shopian municipal committee where the party swept all 17 wards.

In Tral municipal committee, Kashmiri Pandits on the BJP ticket won three wards out of 13 wards.

In Mattan municipal committee out of 13 wards, Kashmiri Pandits won six wards. Five wards were won by Kashmiri Pandits on the BJP ticket while one ward reserved for women was won by a Kashmiri Pandit as a Congress candidate.

In municipal council Sopore out of 21 wards, one ward went to a Kashmiri Pandit on the BJP ticket.
In municipal committee Pampore, out of 17 wards, Kashmiri Pandits on the BJP tickets won from three wards.

In municipal committee Kulgam, out of 13 wards, two wards were won by Kashmiri Pandits on the BJP tickets, while one ward was won by an Independent Kashmiri Pandit candidate.

In municipal committee Devsar, out of eight wards a Kashmiri Pandit candidate on the BJP ticket won from one ward.

In municipal committee Anantnag, out of 25 wards, one ward reserved for women was won by a Kashmiri Pandit on the BJP ticket.

In Bijbehra municipal committee, out of 17 wards, Kashmiri Pandits won three wards on the BJP ticket.
In Dooru Verinag municipal committee, out of 15 wards, three were won by Kashmiri Pandits as BJP candidates.

In Srinagar municipal committee (SMC) out of 74 wards, two wards were secured by Kashmiri Pandits. One ward was won by a Kashmiri pandit on the BJP ticket from Karan Nagar while other ward was won on the Congress ticket from Tankipora.

BJP spokesman of the Kashmir unit Altaf Thakur said that the party had fielded at least 36 Kashmiri Pandit candidates on different wards in Kashmir, of whom around 25 were elected unopposed.

Thakur said the idea behind giving tickets to Kashmiri Pandits who were “forced” to migrate from Kashmir after armed militancy erupted in Kashmir in 1989 was to provide them a platform to return to their roots.

Sheela Koul Handoo, who won ward 19 in Anantnag expressing gratitude to people who voted for her, said she is all geared up to work for the betterment of her area.

Handoo, who had earlier contested the municipal elections in 2005 from Jammu, and have largely lived in the winter capital of the state after the migration of Kashmir Pandits, said that “winning the municipal election has given her a chance to return to her people.”

After the migration, it was the first time that the Kashmiri Pandits had the voting rights for urban local bodies of Kashmir. The authorities had allowed Pandits to vote through postal ballots.

In 2005 municipal elections, which was the first urban local body election in the state after 1989, Kashmiri migrants living in Jammu were registered as voters of Jammu municipalities.

Updated On 10/22/2018 11:15:29 AM