The State Election Commission is making necessary arrangements for holding panchayat and urban local bodies (ULB) elections at the earliest, the Jammu and Kashmir government has said.The tenure of municipalities ended in October-November 2023, while panchayats and block development councils completed their five-year term on January 9, 2024. The term of district development councils also ended on February 24 this year, leaving all local bodies without elected representatives.
According to officials, elections to local bodies could not be held on time due to multiple factors, including the delimitation exercise and the reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes.
In a written reply to a starred question by BJP MLA Baldev Raj Sharma in the legislative assembly, minister in charge of elections, Javed Ahmad Dar, said the commission is making necessary arrangements for holding panchayat and ULB elections at the earliest.
“The superintendance, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and for the conduct of all elections under the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act 1989, Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act-2000 and the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act- 2000 is vested in the State Election Commission,” he said.
“The report submitted by the dedicated Backward Classes Commission is under examination by the competent authority, and further steps for the conduct of Panchayat/ULB elections will be taken accordingly,” Dar said.
The minister said the delimitation of 77 ULBs — municipal corporations, councils and committees — was initiated following instructions issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department in December 2023. While the process has been completed for 72 ULBs, it is underway for the remaining five.
He said the report of the Backward Classes Commission is under consideration, and further steps for conducting elections will be taken after its approval.
Dar said, according to a notification issued by the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department on February 27 last year, the government has frozen the boundaries of districts, tehsils, municipalities, towns, revenue villages and other administrative units across Jammu and Kashmir with effect from July 1, 2025, until completion of the 2021 Census.
The minister said reservation and rotation of municipal wards will be carried out by the SEC, but the process can begin only after the OBC commission’s report is approved and notified.
Following delimitation, reservations will be undertaken according to government directions.
Dar said the procurement of election material is underway, and a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Madhya Pradesh SEC for the supply of 7,000 multipost electronic voting machines for the ULB elections.
On panchayat elections, Dar said panchayat halqas were delimitated ahead of the 2018 polls based on the 2011 Census, and no fresh delimitation is proposed as no new census has been conducted since then.
He reiterated that reservation and rotation for panchayat constituencies will also begin only after approval of the OBC commission’s report.
The minister said electoral rolls have been revised with January 1, 2025, as the qualifying date, and the process of updating panchayat rolls is ongoing.
He added that tenders for the procurement of election material for panchayat and DDC elections have been finalised, and around 30,000 ballot boxes have already been supplied to districts.