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| DDC polls plunge Congress into confusion again | | Leadership indecisive whether to support elections or not | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 4: The Congress party is once again in dilemma and this time due to the announcement of the first ever District Development Council (DDC) elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
As chances are high that the signatories of the Gupkar declaration may give wide berth to the poll process and wouldn’t declare their open support to the elections, Congress party is witnessing the chaos within. The party is of the opinion that it should take active part in the poll process. However, the leadership is yet to break its silence over the issue.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, State Election Commissioner Sharma said that first ever elections for the DDCs will be held from November 28 in phases which will conclude on December 22.
“With the DDC polls, by elections for the vacant sarpanch and panchayat seats will also take place simultaneously,” Sharma told reporters.
He said that polling will take place through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) while postal ballots will be available for Covid-19 patients in isolation, senior citizens and physically unwell patients. He said that electoral rolls used in Sarpanch and Panch elections that have been updated on January 1, 2020, will be used for the DDC polls. “With the announcement of DDC polls, the model code of conduct is in vogue from today onwards. The first formal notification for the first phase of elections will be issued on Thursday,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, sources within the National Conference and PDP, the two main parties who are taking an active role in Gupkar Declaration and have even floated an amalgam namely Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, have divulged that it is impossible that the parties may take any active role in the 8-phased first ever DDC polls in J&K that will commence from Nov 28. “We have been telling people that election is no longer important for us. Now when the polls have been announced, how could we be part of it? We don’t even know what they are all about. The government seems to have created a multi-layer system in which no one knows really how powerful he or she is. This is all precarious,” said a NC functionary in Srinagar.
The Congress on the other hand is confused to the core. It has indecisive over the issue. Party’s leadership and cadre are in doldrums. “It is the high command that will decide whether we will have anything to do with the coming poll process or not. Congress is a national party and not a regional one. Whatever high command will decide will be accordingly announced. For now, we have no clue,” said a Congress leader wishing not to be named. |
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