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| Holding Panchayat poll is challenging task for Omar | | | Tackling the four-month long turmoil and violence was a major challenge for the coalition Government led by Omar Abdullah in Jammu and Kashmir.However,the biggest challenge to the state Goveernment is expected to be if it announced the schedule for holding the elections to the Panchayat committees and the civic bodies.Already the process for revision of electoral rolls for the elections has been set in motion and reports indicate that the Government plans to hold the Panchayat elections somewhere in December 2010.Well the successive state Governments have not been very serious about completing the panchayat and civic bodies elections and the one in 2000 was held after a gap of 23 years.Since the installation of National Conference Government in the state in 1996 a serious attempt had been made to hold the Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir.But usually the Government would develop cold feet because of the militancy related violence.It was
ultimately the Government led by Farooq Abdullah that cast its dice in favour of holding the Panchayat elections in January 2000 despite the fact that the security scenario had not beeen favourable to the poll process in several areas.The result was that elections were completed in not more than 50 per cent of the total Panchayat committees.Though the Government had given an assurance that the poll in other panchayat constituencies would be completed shortly the commitment could not be fulfilled for one reason or the other.However,soon after the PDP led Government was installed in the state in 2002 the elected Panchyat committees were dissolved on the plea that the Government will order fresh elections so that all the Panchayats had elected bodies.That commitment again remained unfulfilled because of the difficult security scenario.Now that Omar Abdullah,who seems to have weathered the recent storm,has plans of accepting the challenging task of holding
the Panchayat and civic elections in the state.Three factors seeem to have forced the Government to weigh all the pros and cons of the decision so that the plan did not prove counter productive.First,the weather related problems could be one of the factors that may force the Government to postpone its plan.If the elections are held in December-January the entire Ladakh and the Kashmir valley besides some hilly belts in the Jammu region would be lashed by cold wave and snow making it difficult for the voters to cast their votes.But political analysts say that except for Ladakh elections could be held in the two regions of Kashmir and Jammu.They refer to the 2008 Assembly elections which were held in November-December and Ladakh had not been delinked then.Secondly,the current security situation,especially in the Kashmir valley,is not conducive for the elections and that too when militants were trying to regroup and intensify their operations against the
security forces and against the soft targets in order to enhance the level of violence and scare.Here the Government has to review the situation and decide only if it is convinced that it can handle any emergencies during that election process.Thirdly,the way the separatists have added to their political weight during the last four months of civil strife they may try to ensure total boycott of the Panchayat elections.Whether in 1996 or in 2002 or in 2008 Assembly elections these separatists have been consistent in calling upon people to boycott the poll process.They have failed in securing full support to their boycott call from the voters because in 2002 and 2008 the poll peercentage ranged between 55 and 60 per cent except several const ituncies in Srinagar city where the poll percentage did not cross 20.One does fear that this time separatists' call for poll boycott could receive massive support.Those who harbour such fears refer to the events that
took place in Kashmir during the last over four months when the separatists' call for shutdown and protest rallies evoked full response from the people.And if voters boycott marching to the polling stations the ruling coalition may have to suffer loss of face which can have international ramification.Hence Omar has to weigh things before accepting the challenging task.
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