No dates yet on J&K’s vacant RS seats

The election commission is yet to announce the schedule for elections to fill the four seats from Jammu and Kashmir that have remained vacant in the Rajya Sabha since 2021 and there is no clarity on whether the vacancies will be filled anytime soon, said people aware of the details.

Gulam Ali, who was nominated in 2022, is the lone member of the Upper House from the Union Territory.

According to a functionary aware of the details, the Rajya Sabha polls are expected to be conducted after the state election commission announces the schedule for bypolls to fill two vacant assembly seats in the UT. While Nagrota fell vacant after the demise of BJP legislator Devender Rana, Budgam was vacated by chief minister Omar Abdullah, who had contested from two constituencies. He currently represents Ganderbal in the 95-member state assembly, which has 90 elected members and five nominated ones.

“Ideally, the polls should have been held by now, since the state polls were held six months ago and the new government was sworn-in in October. We have not been given any explanation for the delay,” said a PDP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The leader said in the absence of any official communication from the poll panel, there is “an assumption” by the political parties that the polling process will be completed after the by-polls are held in the UT.

A senior BJP leader from the UT said the decision to conduct polls rests with the poll panel and the party has not received any message from the election commission about the likely schedule.

Elections for the four seats were last held in 2015, prior to the bifurcation of the state into two union territories. In 2019, Parliament gave its nod to the J&K Reorganisation Act and read down Article 370 that gave the state special powers to decide on issues related to domicile and jobs.

“In 2015 the PDP had two members while the BJP and Congress has one each...this time the National Conference, which has 41 members, and BJP ,with 28, will be the gainers,” the PDP leader quoted above said. The BJP is likely to win one of the four, with the remaining three will go to the NC. “If the INDIA alliance so decides, then one seat of the three could be given to the Congress,” said the PDP leader. The Congress has six members in the assembly.

In 2015, the BJP and PDP were allies in the erstwhile state, till the alliance government fell in 2018. Two of the four Rajya Sabha members, Fayaz Ahmad Mir and Nazir Ahmad Laway, were from the PDP. BJP’s Shamsher Singh Manhas and Ghulam Nabi Azad, then with the Congress, were the other two. The members completed their six year term from 2015 to 2021.

The election commission did not respond to queries.