Voting for 6 Legislative Council seats on April 17

EC to issue notice for elections on March 22

Srinagar, Mar 15: With the announcement of parliament by-polls, the Election Commission of India is setting the stage for holding elections for members of the Legislative Council of the JK legislature.

Six seats are falling vacant on April 19 as the members on these seats will retire after two years term.

Those members who are retiring include Jehangir Mir, Jugal Kishore of Congress, Bashir Ahmed Veeri, Master Noor Hussain, DS Oberoi (deceased) of National Conference and ruling PDP's Yasir Reshi.

The seats becoming vacant belong to Kashmir region (three seats), Jammu (two separate) and one seat reserved for Poonch.

Officials in the Legislature said that ECI will issue notice for elections to be conducted on April 17, two days ahead of the retirement of the members, on March 22.

“ECI will issue notice for holding voting on March 22. The counting for voting and declaration of results will be declared on April 17,” official sources told.

The votes will be cast by the elected MLAs of JK Assembly.

The officials said that there would be one election for three seats of Kashmir region, two separate elections for two seats of Jammu and one seat reserved for Poonch.

The law and parliamentary authorities had earlier informed the ECI about the seats falling vacant on April 19 and asked ECI to issue notification dates for the voting.

Since PDP-BJP coalition has 58 MLAs (PDP 28, BJP 25, Peoples Conference two, nominated two and independent MLA Bakir Rizvi, they may win four seats- two seats of Kashmir and one seat each of Jammu and Poonch-out of the six.

The NC-Congress opposition has 29 members (15 NC, 12 Congress, with the support of independent legislators, M Y Tarigami and Hakim Yaseen can manage to win one seat of Kashmir region.

Of the two remaining seats of Jammu region, there will be a tough contest on one of the seats between ruling parties and opposition as both have bank on the votes of Independent MLA Langate Sheikh Abdul Rasheed and MLA Udhampur Pawan Gupta.