The alliance that favors self-government in Kashmir has won 112 out of a total of 280 seats in the municipal elections.
An alliance of political parties in Indian-administered Kashmir that opposes India’s policies in the region has won the most seats in local elections, the first since New Delhi revoked the semi-autonomous status of the disputed region last year. past.
The Peoples’ Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), which is pro-India but favors self-government in Kashmir, won 112 out of a total of 280 seats in the District Development Council elections, which were held in a staggered process of eight phases from November 28. until December 19.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 74 seats. Independent candidates won 49 seats, while India’s main opposition party in Congress won 26 seats.
The BJP has a very small base in the Kashmir Valley, where it only has three seats. Most of the other BJP seats come from four Hindu-majority districts in the Jammu area, where it has significant support.
More than 51 percent of the nearly 6 million eligible voters in the region’s 20 districts cast their votes, said the Electoral Commission, calling the vote “the largest festival of democracy.”
The results of some remaining seats will be announced later.
Sajad Lone, chairman of the People’s Conference, a pro-India political party and spokesperson for the PAGD, told Al Jazeera that the result “is a verdict in favor of the PAGD.”
“Hopefully a political process will restart,” Lone said.
Political activities in the region came to a halt after the repeal of Article 370 in August last year when most political leaders were detained in the region.
“We have come together for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. People have decided that is what matters, no matter what other people say. “
For the first time in the region, the two main regional political parties – the National Conference that has governed most of the past seven decades in Kashmir and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) headed by former Prime Minister Mehbooba Mufti – had joined forces. united with other parties under PAGD to contest the elections.
The alliance, which aimed to keep the BJP on the sidelines, works on the agenda of restoration of the state and special status of Kashmir.
The election is part of a process in which residents directly elect their village representatives, who then vote to form development councils for groups of villages.
Members of the larger District Development Councils are also directly elected, but they do not have legislative powers and are only responsible for economic development and public welfare.
The Indian authorities have maintained strict control over Kashmir since revoking its autonomy in August 2019 and have arrested most of the separatist leaders, who in the past have called for a boycott of the elections.
New Delhi annulled Kashmir’s constitution, divided the area into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and removed inherited protections over land and jobs.
The Kashmiri-based politicians said the election results made it clear that the Kashmiri people have rejected last year’s decision.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the region in its entirety.
The rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of sponsoring separatist fighters from Kashmir, an accusation that Pakistan denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have died in the conflict.
Additional information from Rifat Fareed in Srinagar, Indian Administered Kashmir
.
