Northlines Correspondent
Jammu Tawi | Aug 29: While everyone has something to say about the Assembly polls in Jammu Kashmir, sources have revealed that polls may be held in the UT in November, 2021. Before the assembly elections however, the government's priority is to elect the District Councils in the UT, which could not be done due to COVID-19.
According to highly placed sources, the work of delimitation of seats in the UT has to be completed and only after that the work on voter list will be taken up on the basis of new seat allocation. It is believed that all this process will be completed before October, so that the assembly elections could be held before the winter starts after November.
The commission has been set up for delimitation and its report is expected to come out by March next year.
At the same time, the government is also trying to conduct the election for District Councils in the Jammu Kashmir. According to sources, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha may decide to hold the elections on vacant seats of the Zilla Parishads and Sarpanches along with assembly polls in October-November this year. Pertinently, more than 13 thousand seats of Panchs and Sarpanches are vacant in the UT and preparations for the polls were to be held in March this year, but had to be cancelled due to Corona.
When asked about prioritizing Zilla Parishad elections before the assembly elections, a senior official said that Jammu and Kashmir is the only UT in the country where the Zilla Parishad elections have not been held till date. According to him, the president of the district councils can play an important role in giving political options in Jammu and Kashmir. According to him, the Panch and Sarpanch system can strengthen democracy at the local level and reach out to the common people.
