J&K Panchayat Bypolls To Be Held From March 5

The Jammu and Kashmir administration announced on Thursday that the panchayat by-elections for around 13,000 vacant seats in the newly-formed Union territory of J&K would be held from March 5 this year. It will be held in eight phases in Kashmir and four phases in Jammu. Ladakh has been excluded from this exercise as no request has come from the UT administration. The elections have been announced at a time when leaders of the two main regional parties –– National Conference’s Omar Abdullah and People’s Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti –– have been detained under Public Safety Act. This is the first political exercise in J&K since the withdrawal of special status and the carving out of two Union territories of J&K and Ladakh. The joint chief electoral officer of J&K, Shailendra Kumar, said all security arrangements to conduct peaceful elections were in place and the model code of conduct came into force on Thursday.