J&K block polls will create a parallel political class as NC & PDP are unlikely to contest

With 310 blocks set to elect chairmen on 24 October, J&K block polls have become the latest flashpoint between state administration and political parties.

Women queue outside a polling booth in Anantnag (representational image) | ANI Photo

Srinagar: Elections to the block development councils (BDCs), to be held for the very first time in Jammu and Kashmir, have the potential to create a new political power structure in the strife-torn region that has been without elected legislators since the dissolution of the state legislative assembly last year.

As many as 310 blocks across Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are going to polls on 24 October, and the results will be announced the same day.

These elections have now become the latest flashpoint between the state administration and mainstream political parties that have their senior leaders under continued detention following the scrapping of Article 370 on 5 August.

Mainstream parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, are likely to stay away from the BDC polls, giving an open field to national parties BJP and Congress as well as other regional parties that haven’t electorally done well in the past.

The state administration has begun the exercise to hold the elections. Candidates contesting the polls are scheduled to file their nominations this week.

The administration has written to the state’s home department to provide security at the polling stations and to the candidates.

NC, PDP likely to stay away

According to senior officials in the government, the last time a proposal to hold BDC elections was floated was in 2013-2014. “However, the proposal did not move forward as the local political parties considered BDC elections a move to challenge the MLA power structure in the state,” said a senior official who did not wish to be named.

With leaders from the NC and PDP under detention, and the parties planning to stay away from the polls, a new political class with new faces will invariably emerge as the BDC chairmen will fill the vacuum of people’s representatives — created by the absence of an elected assembly that was dissolved by Governor Satypal Malik last year, months after the BJP-PDP government fell.

Speaking to ThePrint, several senior officials from the state government said the polls will be the first step towards “empowering grassroots leadership” and increase the government’s accountability. The elected BDC chairmen will have the power to take decisions on infrastructure development locally and distribute the funds allocated for a block.

The block chairmen, along with panchs and sarpanchs, will invariably emerge as the face of the state government and continue to keep the power concentrated around them until assembly elections are held.

What are BDC elections?

BDC polls are meant to elect chairpersons of the blocks on party lines. The electors, however, do not include participation of the entire population of a given constituency but only the elected panchs and sarpanchs.

“In J&K, panchayat elections were held in 2018 between November and December when a total of 23,629 panchs and 3,652 sarpanchs were returned by the respective returning officers. So, the total number of electors is 26,629, which include 18,316 male electors and 8,313 female electors,” said an official in the Chief Electoral Office.

There are currently 316 blocks across Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, and elections are supposed to take place in 310 of them.

For the mainstream parties, the polls could serve as an opportunity to make noise over continued detention of its leaders. For the central government, conducting BDC polls could serve two main purposes — filling the void of public representatives and bring ‘normalcy’ in the region.

“There is a lack of public representation. Till the time assembly elections are held in J&K, there has to be a class of public faces who could reach out to people and meet their demands and aspirations. This is grassroot leadership in true sense. The state administration will be able to micro govern and be able to work for the betterment of people,” a senior state government official told ThePrint.

The centre and the state administration, meanwhile, need to ‘normalise’ the situation in Kashmir where shops and businesses have remained closed for over two months now. Schools and educational institutes, which were opened after the initial restriction period in August, remain empty as students refuse to turn up. While 43,000 landline phones and 7,000 ‘whitelisted’ mobile numbers have been restored, Internet connections and the cell phone number on ‘black list’ remain suspended.

The dilemmas

Sensing the emergence of a new political class and hit by the absence of their leaders, the mainstream political parties are raising questions over the timing of the polls given the prevailing situation.

The NC and the PDP, particularly, had missed an opportunity to strengthen their foothold at the grassroots level when they boycotted urban local body elections held last year. As a result, of the 19,582 panch and sarpanch seats in Kashmir’s 137 blocks, only 7,528 positions were contested. As many as 12,054 (61.5%) panch and sarpanch berths — almost double the number of elected representatives — are vacant.

The Peoples Conference, which was part of the PDP-BJP government in Kashmir, had participated in the polls. However, with their chief Sajad Lone, a former BJP ally, currently under detention, the party hasn’t made its stand official on whether to contest the BDC elections.

“Given the situation we are in, there is no scope for political activity. Leaders continue to be detained. How can one think of elections during this time? The NC will not participate in the polls,” said Anantnag MP Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi.

NC president and Srinagar MP Farooq Abdullah has been booked under the Public Safety Act while his son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah is still detained at Hari Niwas on Srinagar’s Gupkar Road. PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti, along with several senior leaders of the party, too remains detained.

While Masoodi has categorically said the NC will not join the elections, his colleague, senior leader Davinder Singh Rana, added a caveat.

“Only when senior political leaders are released can we plan the future,” said Rana who was among the Jammu-based leaders who were released from house arrest last week.

“Without our leaders’ approval on important decisions, how could we possibly think of elections? What has happened here (scrapping of Article 370 and detention of political leaders) is an absolute travesty,” said a senior political leader in the NC.

From Gupkar Road to Srinagar hotels

With the mainstream parties in J&K in tatters, the emerging power seems to be concentrated around the panchs and sarpanchs at the moment. Many of the winning elected representatives in Kashmir division have been, however, putting up in various Srinagar hotels owing to the security threat they face from militant groups in their respective villages. It now seems the power centres will now be shifting from Gupkar Road, which houses the who’s who of mainstream politics in Kashmir, to these hotels where the panchs and sarpanchs have been staying for around a year now.

“We have the power now. We can talk to anyone directly, including Amit Shahji and Ram Madhavji. I am no more afraid of calling myself a BJP worker,” said Riffat Subhan, a woman panch from Qamarwari area. She has been with the BJP for 15 years but has been forced to stay in a Srinagar hotel since last year. Security for the hotel is provided by the police and the CRPF.

BJP worker Abdul Majeed Mir, a panch from Sopore, is also staying in one of these Srinagar hotels. “We will work for the betterment of people. Threats will continue to come but we will manage. We have the government on our side,” he said.

Asked to share his thoughts on Article 370, Mir said, “I have nothing to do with 370. I just want to work for the development of the state.”

While the BJP workers in the hotels sound confident, the ones from PDP, NC and other local parties appear directionless. “We don’t know what to do. Some of us are even considering joining the BJP. Do we have any option left? You can be BJP or you can be nothing,” said one of them who did not want to be identified.