With eight members of the J&K Legislative Council completing their term on Saturday, the strength of the Upper House will come down to 22.
According to a notification issued by chairman LegislativeCouncil Haji Inayat Ali, eight MLCs – three each from Peoples Democratic Partyand Congress and one each from BJP and National Conference – are retiring onMarch 16.
Former Minister and PDP leader Naeem Akther figures amongthe legislators completing their tenures. The other legislators are RaniBilloria (Congress), Naresh Gupta (Congress), Muhammad Muzaffar Parrey(Congress), Showkat Ganai (NC), Yashpal Sharma (PDP), Sofi Yousuf (BJP) andFirdous Tak (PDP).
While Akther, Parrey, Ganie, Billoria and Gupta were electedfor full six-year term in 2013 during the NC-Congress rule, Tak and Yousuf wereelected during the PDP-BJP rule in 2015 against the casual vacancies caused bythe resignation of as many members.
With retirement of these members, the strength of House willreduce to 22 as six seats of Panchayat and Municipal quota are already lyingvacant.
This would also affect the party strength in the Upper Housealso known as the House of Elders.
The BJP and PDP would now have 10 and eight membersrespectively in the House. Interestingly, the BJP will now become the singlelargest party in the House.
Before forming government with PDP in 2015, the BJP hadmanaged to send only one member to the Upper House since its inception. DayaKrishan Kotwal represented the saffron party in the Upper House between 1996 to2002.
The former allies Congress and NC would be left with one andthree legislators respectively.
These eight vacancies can be filled only when an electedgovernment would be in place in the state because electoral college for themcomprises of MLAs.
The other six vacancies can be filled anytime as ElectoralCollege for them comprises of elected panchayat and ULB representatives.
The State Administrative Council recently decided to writeto the Election Commission of India for filling Panchayat and ULB quotavacancies in the House.
The nomination of eight MLCs, four each of PDP and BJP, bythe previous government has also been challenged in High Court.