Elections to panchayats, urban local bodies and the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly will likely be conducted only after the general elections, set to be held after a few months this year.
After towns and cities, the rural areas in Jammu and Kashmir will cease to have the traditional grassroots-level elected representatives as the five-year term of 4,892 elected village panchayats came to an end Tuesday.
A new governance structure — District Development Councils, elected directly by people — however, continues to be in place since the standalone elections held in 2020.Just about two months ago, the term of urban local bodies, including two municipal corporations, 19 municipal councils and 57 municipal committees, ended on November 14, 2023. These were constituted through elections held on party symbols after 13 years.
However, two issues that come in the way of holding local body and panchayat elections immediately, according to government sources, are: identification of municipal constituencies to be reserved, and the transfer of mandate to conduct the municipal electoral processes to the State Election Commission from the Chief Electoral Officer now, in accordance with Constitutional provisions.
