After a day of Block Development Council elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Member of Parliaments (MPs) across party lines for the “historic decisions” taken in Jammu and Kashmir. The voting turnout in the BDC elections was a whopping figure of over 98 percent.
Prime Minister posted a series of tweets in Dogri language regarding the massive success of BDC elections. The translated tweet read-
“News that would make every Indian proud! For the first time since 1947, Block Development Council elections were held in Jammu, Kashmir, Leh, and Ladakh on the 24th. The polls witnessed a historic turnout of 98 percent. There were over 1080 candidates in the fray in 310 blocks.”
He said that the elections were conducted peacefully and thanked people for showing their faith in the democratic exercise of elections. This was the first election since heavy restrictions were imposed in the valley state after the central government’s decision to repeal Article 370 on August 5. BDC elections were held in 280 blocks out of a total of 316 in the former state.
The majority of the winning candidates are Independents standing at a tall figure of 217. BJP won 81 seats, while the Congress and the Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party were able to secure only a single seat each.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Shailendra Kumar said that the lowest voting percentage was observed at Pulwama and Shopian at 86 and 85 percent respectively.
Block Development Council-
Block Development Council is the second tier of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) established in the Indian administrative system. PRI has three levels, village, block, and district level. The election for the first tier was held in 2018.
According to the official, the elections were boycotted by the two major local parties – Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference.
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