Srinagar: As the four-phased urban local bodies elections are scheduled to begin on Monday, 231 candidates have been declared unopposed winners in the Kashmir valley, while 556 will be in competition.
The data compiled by the chief electoral office reveals that 787 candidates are contesting the polls in the valley, out of which 231 have been declared unopposed winners. Owing to this, there will be no voting in 24 municipal committees.
The remaining 556 candidates will contest the polls in 14 municipal committees.
The civic elections have been shadowed by militant threats and boycott by two key political parties — the NC and the PDP. It has resulted in poor participation in most of the wards of the Kashmir valley.
The final count of the candidates winning the poll without any competition came after the deadline for the withdrawal of nomination for the fourth phase ended on Friday.
Seven municipal committees and 25 of the 74 wards of the Srinagar municipal corporation are scheduled to go to the polls in the last phase of the elections, in which 202 candidates have filed their nominations. Out of these, 52 have been elected unopposed.
Out of the 40 municipal committees in the 10 districts of the Kashmir valley, only 14 will go to the polls in the four-phased elections. There will be no election in Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama, as there are no candidates contesting from the wards of these districts.
Two municipal committees — Khrew in Pulwama and Frisal in Kulgam — which have 13 wards each, will see no election as no candidate has filed nominations there.
The highest number of candidates, 274, will be contesting from Srinagar, where eight have won unopposed.
‘BJP distorting facts on unopposed candidates’
The J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) has accused the BJP of distorting facts with regard to number of unopposed candidates. In a statement issued here on Saturday, Ghulam Nabi Monga, JKPCC vice-president and MLC, said, “This is very unfortunate, rather condemnable, that the BJP is using the administration to ensure its victory in the upcoming civic polls.” (TNS)
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