With poor percentage of polling in Kashmir in the elections for municipal bodies, the 9-phased Panchayat election that will begin next month is expected to set the trend of political discourse in Jammu and Kashmir.

Election for the 79 municipal bodies in 4-phases that completed yesterday remained peaceful and now the authorities are gearing up for the massive exercise of electing 35,096 Panches in the 316 blocks of Jammu and Kashmir. Polling percentage of 35.1 percent was recorded although the Jammu and Ladakh regions voted heavily.

Participation of people in the grassroots institution of Panchayati Raj particularly in the Kashmir valley is being seen keenly.

The National Conference (NC), PDP and CPI(M) had boycotted the municipal elections that were held after a gap of 13 years and the NC had announced boycott of also the panchayat elections.

Polling for 4490 panchayats across the state will begin under heavy security cover on 17 November and end on 11 December. The earlier panchayats had completed their term more than two years ago and Mehbooba Mufti, who headed the PDP-BJP coalition government, had been delaying fresh elections for these grassroots bodies.

Although the 73rd and 74th Amendments are not applicable in the state because of its special status, the Governor’s administration had recently amended the state’s panchayat law to provide more powers to the panchayats. Successive governments in the state had denied these basic powers to the grassroots institutions.

Chief electoral officer, Shaleen Kabra, said that the last Panchayat elections in the State were held in 2011 after a gap of 10 years and the Panchayats completed their term in July 2016. As many as 58,12429 people are registered as voters for these elections.

Last date for filing nominations for the nine phases will be 30 October, 2, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 19 and 22 November  respectively.

Polling will be held on 17, 20, 24, 27 and 29 November and 1, 4, 8 and 11 December.

While more than 300 municipal body seats in Kashmir had been won uncontested or for which no candidate filed nomination papers, it is to be seen to what extent the poll boycott call of separatists works in the valley.

Development of the rural areas suffered during the past two years in absence of elected panchayats as the central grants earmarked for various schemes for such areas did not come as a result of which the state remained deprived of grants amounting more than Rs.4000 crores.