Government of India trashes all the principles of democratic way of holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir. When all the regional parties boycotted the ULB elections, the BJP at centre thought it best to conduct the elections in Jammu and Kashmir in grim environment where even all the mainstream political parties reposed no faith in this election process.
The Governor said ULB elections are a success, but the story is different , many municipal wards in Kashmir division found no candidates, many polling stations found no voters, the polling turnover remained as low as 3%.
The State Administrative Council (SAC) came with the reason that these elections can help in grass root development like better roads, 24 hour power supply, proper sanitations etc.
In south Kashmir, Kashmiri migrant Hindus won the elections unopposed on BJP candidature and the fact is that the Kashmiri Hindus had fled on the pretext to save their lives from the militant outfits. Now, how; these people shall work on the grass root level when actually they reside at Jammu and other places?
These elections remained far away to win the trust of common Kashmiri masses. The BJP with a devoted desire to grab the power in Jammu and Kashmir giving least consideration to the regional parties destroyed the political prospects of these regional parties for the time being and they too preferred to remain out of this process giving reason that unless and until the GoI does not come clear on the article 35A, the participation in elections is impossible. The election boycott by the regional parties directly gave benefit to BJP and most of its candidates won uncontested.
The other parts of Jammu and Kashmir excluding Kashmir witnessed good turnover of votes and people participated with zeal and zest but the fact remains intact that the major part of Jammu and Kashmir i.e. Kashmir didn’t participate in elections and also centre will not be in position to highlight the ULB elections a successful one.
