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| Will people respond or ignore separatists' poll boycott call ? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 8: Notwithstanding the recent announcement of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, on holding the civic elections in December the State Government, to be precise the State Cabinet, is a divided lot. Even after Omar's announcement the Government is yet to initiate specific measures for updating the electoral rolls and for carrying out ward delimitation.
The civic polls and the election to the block development councils were due in 2010 but were delayed on one reason or the other despite the fact that the Panchayat elections were held in the State last year.
When 10 days before Omar Abdullah announced that the civic polls would be held in December people had started believing that the stage was being set for the elections to the urban local bodies and block development councils in Jammu and Kashmir. Omar Abdullah, was stated to have instructed the Rural Development and Housing and Urban Development Departments to initiate necessary steps for the conduct of the elections.
Well as far as the civic elections are concerned Jammu and Kashmir State has a very poor record because during the last 65 years these elections were held only on four occasions. When the Panchayat elections were held in the State last year one had expected that it would be followed by the civic elections. But the Government preferred to go slow with the civic elections because it had fears that any hasty step could prove counter productive because the separatists had felt upset over high percentage of polling in Panchayat elections and were planning to wreck the civic elections.
No doubt the NC led Government received accolades from the Centre for its success in holding fair and peaceful Panchayat elections, the mainstream political parties, including the Congress, were unhappy over the delaying tactics adopted by the NC in conceding their demand for incorporating 73rd and 74th amendment, to the Panchayat Act for empowering the Panchayats.
Now that the Government has plans of holding the elections to the civic bodies and the block development councils it has to face a number of challenges. First being the month of December. Will it be feasible for holding the polls in December when major area of the State gets lashed by heavy snow ? But the Government circles are hopeful about uninterrupted polling on the assumption that when polling for the Assembly poll in December could take place why cannot people participate in the civic elections ?
Yes, these Government circles say that in case harsh and bad weather prevented voters from walking to the polling booths in some segments of the State the elections in these areas could be held after a gap of three to four months.
The biggest challenge for the Government may come from the separatists who have given a call to people to boycott the civic elections several months before the Government had decided on the poll schedule. The Government does not seem to be much perturbed over it because the call for boycott of Assembly elections since 1996 had not evoked any major response from the voters.
The upcoming civic elections may indicate the inner failings and strength of mainstream political parties. It is to be seen whether the Congress and the NC, that share power in the State since 2009, contest the poll in alliance or separately. Whether the two fight the elections jointly or separately the poll results will exhibit the level of erosion the two have suffered during the last over three years or the results may demonstrate that the Congress-NC alliance is the most suitable arrangement in the State depending on the success of the ruling coalition.
In addition to this the preparation for the elections will reflect the level of conflict between the loyalists and the dissidents in he State unit of the Congress. Equally important would be the role of the State unit of the BJP which stands split with seven MLAs on one side of the fence. Hence the civic elections will show whether those who support the expelled MLAs field their candidates in civic bodies and block development councils in the Jammu region or not. If they participate and do well in the elections by outstripping the official party candidates the BJP high command may be forced to review its sack plan.
As far as the Kashmir valley is concerned the civic elections may mirror the level of conflict and success of the PDP and the NC. It seems that such issues may not be as important as peaceful polling is and that too when majority of people ignored the poll boycott call from the separatists. But if majority of people responded to the boycott call he NC-Congress alliance may lose is face.
These are some of the issues that cause delay in the programme of holding the civic elections. |
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