Srinagar, October 24: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Shailendra Kumar on Thursday confirmed that Independent candidates won 217 of the 310 Block Development Councils in Jammu and Kashmir Block Development Council Elections 2019. "BJP won 81, Indian National Congress 1, Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party 8, BSP 0, Independent 217," he said, explaining the party-wise distribution of seats.

The first democratic exercise in Jammu and Kashmir after the scrapping of its special status in August was held on Thursday, October 17, with all major political parties, other than the BJP, staying away from the Block Development Council (BDC) elections because of continued detention of their leaders. Jammu & Kashmir BDC Elections 2019: Poonch Records Nomination of 61 Candidates, 31 Aspirants Pull Out of Race For Block Development Council.

Read the Tweet Below

Out of the 26,629 eligible ‘panch’ and ‘sarpanch’, 98.3 per cent voted to elect 310 chairperson for their respective blocks, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar said.

Panch and Sarpanch are elected by people at the village level. These representatives go on to elect chairpersons of Block Development Councils which are second tier organisation in the Panchayati Raj system.

The state has 316 blocks but elections were held in 283 blocks on Thursday. In 27 blocks, chairpersons were elected unopposed. Elections couldn’t take place in two blocks as they did not have an elected panch and sarpanch, while in four blocks reserved for women, there was no elected woman panch.

The panch and sarpanch in Srinagar were taken in a bus under security cover to facilitate them in polling and the district, which has been witnessing a tense atmosphere since August 5 when the state’s special status under Article 370 was abrogated by the Centre, saw 100 per cent polling. (With PTI Inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 24, 2019 10:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).