Panchayat Polls Revival of Grassroots Democracy begins; Voting forPhase-I today

85 Sarpanchs, 1676 Panchs elected unopposed; 5585 in fray in 15 districts

JAMMU: Twenty-eight long months after the expiration of term of last elected rural bodies, Jammu and Kashmir will witness the resurrection of the grassroots democratic institutions on Saturday when as many as 47 of total 316 blocks spread across the 15 districts of the state would go to polls in the first of the nine phases of the Panchayat elections.

Of the 536 Sarpanch Halqasand 4048 Panch wards for which contest was to be held between 1451 and 5950 candidates, respectively, 85 Sarpanchs and 1676 Panchs have already been elected unopposed in Phase-I.

This leaves open for contention only 420 Sarpanch Halqas and 1845 Panch wards in Phase-I, for which 5585 candidates are in the fray in seven districts of Jammu division and eight districts of Kashmir division, even as many areas will not see polling due to no nomination being filed.

The polling will be held at 3296 polling stations across the state, including 1303 in Kashmir and 1993 in Jammu Division, among whom 687 polling stations have been categorized as hypersensitive including 491 in Kashmir and 196 in Jammu Division.

In the areas going to polls tomorrow, 445059 electors will be voting for Sarpanch seats while 272792 will be polling for Panch constituencies.

All arrangements have been put in place for the smooth conduct of the polls and polling staff has been deputed to the respective polling stations even as the voting would begin at 8:00 am in the morning and would continue at least till 2:00 pm, which could be extended if the situation demands so, official sources from the office of Chief Election Officer informed.

The counting of the votes would be held soon after the polling ends, on the same day, they told.

Saturday would mark a historic day for the State which last went to Panchayat elections in 2011 after a gap of 10 years to elect the rural bodies which completed their term in July 2016.

After a long wait of almost two-and-a-half year, as many as 5854208 electors across the state—2991128 in Kashmir and 2863080 in Jammu region would cast their vote starting from Saturday, the first of the nine phases.

They will elect representatives to 35029 Panch constituencies in 4483 Panchayat Halqas of 316 Blocks in the elections which will conclude on December 11.

In the troubled state such as ours, presently reeling in the absence of any political dispensation, the elections to grassroots democratic institutions assume greater significance, extraordinarily and beyond the usual comprehension.

The same was reflected last time around 8 years ago when then Governor N N Vohra, with the support of then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah put up a successful struggle to conduct the Panchayat elections in 2011, first after 2001.

It has also been seen that both the major national parties here—BJP and Congress have shown a seriousness regarding the J&K Panchayats, not be seen in any other part of the country.

It was new Governor Satya Pal Malik who took over the baton from Vohra and managed to conduct the Municipal elections peacefully last month, with full support from Centre.

Tracing back the journey of Panchayts in last one decade, Vohra was always pushing for the empowerment and timely holding the elections to the grassroots democracy in state ever since he joined the state as Governor in 2008.

There could still be found mentions in political and bureaucratic circles of how hard and consistent was Vohra’s persuasion with then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the aftermath of 2010 violence.

The panchayat elections were finally held in 2011 and went on to become a hugely success story, especially in the wake of the fact that elections were announced months after the devastating agitation of 2010 which had claimed more than 120 lives and it looked like at one point that the idea of peace in Kashmir is irreversibly lost.

While there was nothing to discredit Omar Abdullah who himself was very keen but primarily it was Vohra’s strong and consistent persuasion with him that finally the state went to Panchayat polls, being talked in different parts of the world as well. In some places of the Kashmir, as high as 86% polling was registered as the hopes got rekindled of the people who had lost more than just hopes while witnessing the 2010 crisis.

But the process to empower grassroots democracy got discredited in the context that the devolution of powers in Panchayats never happened. Vohra continued his tireless efforts with the Omar government, but not much was done, till it became a national issue.

The Congress which was in Centre at that time and also a partner with NC in state in Omar government took this up as an important issue of ideological commitment with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and also started projecting this as an answer to the issues of the Kashmir, signaling to NC that it will not compromise on its agenda of empowering the Panchayats, even as the relationship between Rahul Gandhi and Abdullah started looking stressed.

The Junior Gandhi even got the members of Panchayat Conference from state flown down to New Delhi and had asked Omar to empower the Panchayats. Compelled, the Omar government begun the process but it didn’t see the light of the day.

Years later, when the term of last elected panchayats were coming to an end in July 2016, Vohra had started stressing then Mufti-led government for ensuring there be no delay in conducting the fresh elections.

When it was his own administration in the state for close to 3 months- 8 January to 4 April, 2016-after the death of Mufti Mohammad Syed, Vohra had almost rolled out Panchayat polls. When he was giving the final touch to the poll schedule and state budget, the government was formed with Mehbooba as the new Chief Minister.

The term of panchayat bodies ended months later, but fresh elections couldn’t be held due to the troubled atmosphere following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016, leading to unrest in Valley for next 4 months and claiming again over 100 lives.

It was around this time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spared time from his busy schedule to the members of the same Panchayat Conference which Rahul Congress had hosted 4 years earlier.

Both these meeting prove how Panchayats in J&K enjoy a special place in BJP and Congress’s agenda, a fact further accentuated last month when both the parties decided to participate in both Municipal and Panchayat elections, despite the boycott from PDP and NC.

Back to 2016, the first signs of Vohra’s last efforts were seen on November 4, last year when he approved the urgent promulgation of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, that too during the Darbar Move recess- where such moves have not been made usually.

His move of empowering the State Chief Electoral Officer ShaheenKabra to determine and de-limit halqa panchayats and to conduct the Panchayat elections had come around a week after the union government had asserted in October 2017 that there was no possibility to hold the elections in immediate future in view of regular incidents of terrorist attacks on security forces and innocent citizens.

A month and a half later, the state government announced to hold the much-awaited elections in state from February 15, 2018, only to postpone them once again when the majority had advocated defer them in an All Party Meeting (APM) chaired by Mehbooba in February this year.

However, the turnaround following the fall of PDP-BJP coalition on June 19, gave yet another opportunity to Vohra, who in July this year directed the Department of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj to initiate the process of holding elections to Panchayats.

Vohra was replaced by Satya Pal Malik in August this year. However, Malik only worked with twice the dedication to realise the dream Vohra had seen.

Not only Municipal elections were conductedsuccessfully, but Panchayats were given a number of powers, as drawn from the 73rd and 74th amendment of the Constitution of India--which have not been extended to Jammu and Kashmir so far.

While separatists have called for a boycott of the polls, militants have threatened to target anyone taking part in these elections.
While the polls are being conducted on the non-party basis, the NC, PDP and the CPI(M) have announced to stay away from the electoral exercise due to the legal challenge to Article 35-A of the Constitution in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, ShaleenKabra on Friday said that Basic Minimum Facilities (BMF) have been ensured in all the polling stations across the State. Photo Voter Slips have been distributed among the voters to inform them of their polling stations.

He said senior government officers have been appointed as General Observers to oversee the smooth, fair and orderly conduct of Panchayat Elections, 2018. Also, Expenditure Observers are keeping a watch on the expenditure by the candidates. In addition, for the poll day, Micro Observers have been placed in polling stations, particularly those considered hypersensitive. Besides, the Zonal and Sector Magistrates too have been deployed.

CEO said Control Rooms have been established in all the districts across the State to respond promptly to any complaints of violation of the Model Code of Conduct as also to disseminate information to the public. Security arrangements have been made including deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

He said the Government has declared holiday on the day of poll in the panchayat areas going to polls so as to enable the voters to cast their vote. He said special casual leave shall also be granted to the employees who have to go to other areas to exercise their right to franchise. As per standing guidelines, the Central Government offices shall not be closed but the employees who are electors of the poll going wards and desire to exercise their franchise shall be offered reasonable facility to do so.

The Chief Electoral Officer, J&K appealed the voters to come forward and exercise their right to franchise in order to choose their local self-government to address their local needs.