The Apni Party of Jammu and Kashmir, led by Altaf Bukhari, managed to win over the independents to their side and seize the District Development Councils in Srinagar and Shopian on Saturday, and their candidates were elected to the posts of President and Vice President in both districts. .
Launched six months after the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided in August 2019, the Apni Party contested the DDC elections against the constituents of the People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) (PDP, NC, Conference of the People, JK Popular Movement and CPI-M).
Its candidates won just three seats in Srinagar and two in Shopian out of 14 in each of the two districts. Elections for 280 territorial districts in 20 districts (14 in each district) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were held in November-December 2020.
In Srinagar, 10 out of 13 DDC members voted for the Apni Party candidate, Malik Aftab. Bilal Ahmad Bhat, also from the Apni Party, was elected vice president with nine votes. Of the 14 elected members in Srinagar DDC, seven were independent.
The district’s election official, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, said an independent elected member of the Harwan-IV constituency, Rizwana Bano, was unable to participate in the meeting “due to health reasons.”
Similarly, in Shopian, Bilquees Bano of the Apni Party was elected president with eight out of 14 votes. The Vice President position landed in a tie with seven votes cast each for the JKAP and PAGD candidates. In a draw, Irfan Manhas from Apni Party was finally declared the winner.
Making an exception to the defection of DDC members in Shopian, the National Conference urged State Elections Commissioner KK Sharma to examine the issue “as it violates the mandate of the people and the spirit of democracy.”
The party’s provincial chairman Nasir Aslam Wani and South Kashmir MP Hasnain Masoodi said that if the elected members of the DDC from a particular party ticket, manifesto and symbol fail after the elections, they must be disqualified.
At the DDC in Kulgam district, Mohammad Afzal Parray of the CPI (M) was elected President and Shazia Jan of the National Conference was elected Vice President. Both CPI (M) and NC won five seats each in Kulgam, out of a total of 14.
Addressing the mediators, Apni Party Chairman Altaf Bukhari expressed his gratitude to the people for electing the party’s candidates and said that a “new generation of leaders” has emerged from the DDC elections.
“The Apni Party believes in the real empowerment of the people of J&K and so I am happy that this new leadership has had the opportunity to bring a paradigm shift in local politics,” he said.
At the DDCs in the Jammu and Kathua districts, the BJP candidates were elected president and vice president on Saturday. While former MLA Bharat Bhushan and Colonel (retired) Mahan Singh were unanimously elected presidents in Jammu and Kathua respectively, Suraj Singh and Raghunandan Singh, alias ‘Bablu’, were elected vice presidents.
In Jammu DDC, the BJP had won 11 of 14 constituencies, and in Kathua, its candidates won in 13 constituencies.
Taranjit Singh Tony, an independent candidate, who had defeated the BJP heavyweight and former cabinet minister Sham Choudhary, proposed the names of Bharat Bhushan and Suraj Singh. “We all have to work together for the well-being of our people and the development of the district,” he said.
For the Samba and Udhampur districts, in which the BJP candidates had won in 11 and 13 districts respectively, the party has already announced Keshav Dutt Sharma and Lal Chand as candidates for the position of president. Elections for President and Vice President in Udhampur and Samba DDC were set for February 8 and 10, respectively.
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