JAMMU, Nov 22: Election for four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir is expected to be held in January next year when some vacancies to the Upper House will also be filled up in other States/Union Territories.
All four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir are vacant since February 2021 as elections were delayed to the Legislative Assembly. However, with Assembly elections held in September-October and new House in place, a notification for the Rajya Sabha seats was expected to be issued in the middle of October.
In the House of 90, there are 88 MLAs with two vacancies arising with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah resigning from Budgam seat while retaining Ganderbal and death of BJP MLA from Nagrota Devender Singh Rana.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Election Commission of India, responsible for holding the Rajya Sabha elections, generally undertakes the exercise by clubbing the elections if they are due in more States/UTs. As some vacancies are arising in more States/UT, the election for four Rajya Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir is being clubbed with them and is now expected to be held in the month of January.
“The MLAs become eligible to cast votes soon after taking oath,” the sources said.
In the case of Rajya Sabha elections, the vacancies are notified by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat which has already been done while a notification for the voting is issued by the Election Commission of India. The Legislative Assembly Secretary serves as the Returning Officer for the elections. Manoj Pandit is the Assembly Secretary at present.
The alliance of National Conference, Congress and Independents can win three out of four Rajya Sabha seats while the BJP will be safe on one seat going by numbers the major parties enjoy in the Legislative Assembly.
In 2019, PDP-BJP alliance with 54 seats (PDP 28 and BJP 26) had won three seats (two PDP and one BJP) while fourth seat had gone to Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir who was with the Congress then with the support of NC and Congress, who had 27 MLAs (NC 15 and Congress 12). Four MLAs of smaller parties and Independents had supported Azad.
As per the past practices, the Election Commission issued three notifications for Rajya Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. One election is held for two seats while two separate elections are held for one seat each. If the similar practice is followed, two seats on which separate elections will be held will go to the ruling Alliance which already has 54 MLAs with it. While two seats on which one election will be held will be equally divided among NC-led Alliance and the BJP.
There were reports that National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah, who didn’t contest either Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, can be fielded by the party on one of the seats for Rajya Sabha elections.
“It will be seen whether the National Conference leadership will leave one Rajya Sabha seat for the Congress which has just six MLAs,” the political observers assert.
Last election to four seats of Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir was held in February 2015 when the then BJP-PDP alliance won three seats and NC-Congress one. Fayaz Ahmad Mir and Nazir Ahmad Laway (both PDP), Shamsher Singh Manhas (BJP) and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of J&K and then in Congress were elected. BJP’s Chander Mohan Sharma had lost the election.
All these four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir completed their six years term in February 2021. Since then, there has been no elected MP from J&K in the Rajya Sabha in the absence of Assembly.
In 2015, PDP had 28 MLAs, BJP 26, National Conference 15, Congress 12, People’s Conference two and CPM and AIP one each. Rest were Independents
