As the first-ever election for chairpersons and vice-chairpersons in three District Development Councils (DDCs) in the Valley were held on Saturday, Apni Party won the Srinagar and Shopian seats. The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) bagged the Kulgam seat.
The Apni Party candidate Malik Aftab with 10 votes was elected as the chairperson whereas Bilal Ahmad Bhat with nine votes was elected as the vice-chairperson of the DDC Srinagar.
District Election Officer (DEO) Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, said that 13 out of the 14 elected DDC members participated in the meeting. He said the elected member from Harwan-IV constituency could not take part in the meeting due to health reasons.
The PAGD had fielded National Conference’ Kaiser Ganai who secured only three votes, Manzoor Ahmad Bhat with 4 votes was the runner-up in the vice-chairperson election.
Out of 14 DDC seats in Srinagar, the independents had won seven seats, Apni Party three seats with one each going to the NC, PDP, JK Peoples Movement and BJP.
However, later many independent candidates joined Apni Party taking the tally to nine. BJP candidate Ajaz Hussain, who won from Khonmoh-II constituency’s Balahama also extended support to the Apni Party.
In a close fight in Shopian, Altaf Bukhari-led Apni Party defeated PAGD by two votes.
Apni Party candidate Bilqees Akhtar secured eight votes while her rival candidate from PAGD managed six votes.
Officials said the vice-chairperson seat, which was won by Iqbal Manhas of Apni Party, was decided through a draw of lots after there was a tie.
Out of the 14 DDC seats in Shopian, National Conference and independents had won 4 seats each while PDP, Apni Party and Congress had secured 3, 2 and 1 seat respectively.
However, 3 out of 4 independent candidates and one each from NC and Congress joined the Apni Party, while one independent candidate joined NC.
The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) secured a consolation win in Kulgam.
PAGD had fielded CPI (M) candidate Mohammad Afzal Parray as Chairperson and NC’s Shazia Jan as Vice- Chairperson for the DDC seat. Both the candidates were elected for the posts.
District Panchayat Election Officer (DPEO) Kulgam, Showkat Aijaz Bhat, said all the 14 DDC members participated in the election process and elected Parray as Chairperson and Shazia Jan as vice-chairperson of the DDC.
CPI (M) leader and former MLA Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami took to Twitter and congratulated the winners.
“Congratulations to Comrade M Afzal of our party CPIM for being elected as DDC chairman of district Kulgam and Shazia Jan of NC as vice-chairman. We thank and appreciate the cooperation of all the elected DDC members of Kulgam for consensus and unanimity (sic),” Tarigami said.
CPI (M) and NC had won five DDC seats each in Kulgam, while Congress and PDP had won two each.