JAMMU, Sept 24: Nearly a year after Assembly elections and formation of the Omar Abdullah-led Government, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced biennial elections to fill four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The voting will take place on October 24, nearly four and a half years after the seats fell vacant.
According to the ECI notification, three separate elections will be conducted – one each for two individual seats that fell vacant on February 10, 2021, and a combined election for the two seats that fell vacant on February 15, 2021. All four elected members will have a full six-year term.
The National Conference (NC)-led alliance, which has 53 MLAs including 41 from NC, seven Congress, four independents, and one from CPM, is expected to comfortably win three of the four seats, while the BJP is projected to secure one seat with its 28 MLAs.
The schedule for the election process is as follows: Notification will be issued on October 6, nominations can be filed till October 13, scrutiny will take place on October 14, and withdrawals are allowed till October 16. Polling will be held on October 24 from 9 AM to 4 PM, with counting the same day at 5 PM. The process will be completed before October 28.
The elections were delayed for nearly two years due to the absence of a legislature in J&K following the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganization of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories. Now that the Assembly has been constituted, the electorate is available for conducting the polls.
The current Assembly has 88 eligible MLAs out of the total strength of 90, as five nominated seats are yet to be filled and two seats remain vacant. PDP, PC, and independent MLAs have maintained a neutral stance and are expected to play a limited role in the outcome.
Interestingly, Mehraj Malik, the sitting AAP MLA currently detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA), remains eligible to vote as Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act allows voting by those under preventive detention.
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Labels: Rajya Sabha Elections, J&K Politics, Omar Abdullah Government, Election Commission of India
Tags: #RajyaSabhaElections #JammuKashmir #ECI #OmarAbdullah #NC #BJP
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