All eyes on DDC polls in J&K, Many bigwigs in electoral fray

Srinagar, Nov 16: The upcoming District Development Council elections are expected to be a tight fight as political parties are fielding some bigwigs for the polls.
J&K Election Commissioner KK Sharma announced that the first DDC elections in the newly bifurcated Union Territory will be held on 28 November and 22 December and will have eight phases. The DDC election for 280 constituencies will fill up 234 vacant seats of sarpanches, panches and local bodies. Now all eyes are on DDC polls which political party will win maximum number of seats.
The National Conference, PDP and Congress reached understanding for first phase of the District Development Council (DDC) elections. While BJP too is making all efforts to win maximum seats.
BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda has appointed Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur as Incharge and Shahnawaz Hussain, former Union Minister and party spokesperson and Sanjay Bhatia, MP as co-Incharges for District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP has released second list of 46 candidates for third, fourth and fifth phases comprising one former Minister, an ex-legislator, and a JKAS officer, who had taken voluntary retirement from the services.
Sources told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) that Smriti Irani, Dr Jitendra Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Partap Sarangi, Gen (Retd) VK Singh and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Tarun Chug, will be star campaigners in J&K elections.
Similarly, NC, PDP and Congress are fielding some top leaders in the DDC elections.
“It seems a tight fight between parties of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration and BJP,” sources said. “All are putting their some top leaders in polls while senior leaders will also participate in campaigning to woo voters,” they said.
For the first phase of DDC elections, a total number of 2644 polling stations will be set up and there are be 7,03,620 electors.
In Kashmir division 183 nominations were received for 25 constituencies of the DDCs and in Jammu division, 169 nominations have been received for 18 segments.