SRINAGAR: Despite the major regional parties staying away from the first ever Block Development Council polls in J&K, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) secured only 25 percent of seats, while most of seats were won by independents.
According to the details sheared by the chief election office, BJP has won from 81 blocks out of the total 316 blocks in the state, while 217 were won by independent candidates, eight by JKNPP, and one by Indian National Congress.
Two main political parties, National Conference and People Democratic Party have not participated in the polls because their leaders were detained post scrapping of article 370.
The state has 316 blocks but elections were held in 283 blocks on Thursday. In 27 blocks, chairpersons were elected unopposed.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar said that in the total of 26,629 eligible ‘panch’ and ‘sarpanchs’, 98.3 per cent cast their vote Thursday to elect 310 chairpersons for their respective blocks.
The poll percentage for the 10 districts in the Kashmir region was 93.65 per cent and 99.4 per cent for the 10 districts in the Jammu region, Kumar added.
Due to prevalent turmoil in the Valley, the government had taken the electors in a bus under multi-tier security cover in all the districts of the Valley.
Regarding the non-participation of the main parties in the polls, Kumar said, two separate teams had been sent to get their ‘the mood and mind’ about the elections. He said, leaders of one party had sought permission to meet the detained leaders, while the other had refused to participate. He however did not name any.
NC had made clear that it would decide on participating in elections when its leadership was released so that a broader consultation could be held. It had also said that the holding of BDC elections, was “the biggest mockery of democracy” because the entire leadership of the state was “under detention”.
NC and PDP had also stayed away from the elections for panchs and sarpanchs held last year.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz