J&K BDC polls: Independent candidates win 217 seats, BJP bags 81

The Jammu and Kashmir Block Development elections were held on Thursday and the results were declared in the evening; while independent candidates won 217 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) candidates won 81 seats and one seat respectively. The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party won eight seats. This was the first electoral exercise in the region since the revocation of Article 370 on August 5.

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98.3% voter turnout

The elections were boycotted by regional parties such as the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Jammu and Kashmir Electoral Officer, Shailendra Kumar held a press conference in the evening where he said that as per the data received by the authorities, the total voter turnout was 98.3%, with Srinagar witnessing the highest turnout of 100% and Pulwama and Shopian being the lowest at 86% and 85%. He also added that the security deployment was the same as that of the Lok Sabha election, and no additional security was deployed. 

The Jammu district electoral officer Sushma Chauhan said that there were no reports untoward incident reported from anywhere in Jammu. 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. The panch and sarpanch in Srinagar were taken in a bus under security cover to facilitate them in polling and the district. There were 26,629 panch and sarpanch voters -- 8,313 women and 18,316 men. 

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PRIs have three levels -- village, block and district -- and election for the first tier were held last year, which was also boycotted by the National Conference (NC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP).  Congress, CPI(M), NC and PDP did not take part in the elections, which are being held on party basis, leaving the field open to the BJP, that had candidates in 280 blocks, and Independents.

The National Conference had made clear that it would be able to decide on participating in the BDC elections only after its leadership was released so that a broader consultation could be held. The party's two former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar have been in detention since August 5 and so has been PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.

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