Civic Polls’ Results: ‘Independents’ single largest group; Congress, BJP follow

Srinagar, Oct 20: Independent candidates have won 178 seats in Urban Local Bodies elections in Kashmir followed by Congress, which won 157, and BJP, which managed to win 100, 76 of which they won uncontested.
The election was boycotted by National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party, two major local mainstream parties.
After completion of the counting, independents were declared winners on 103 of the seats were election were held and remaining 75 were won by them uncontested.
Similarly, among 157 candidates belonging to Congress, 78 seats were won by the party uncontested.
In Srinagar, there were 74 wards and 66 among them saw the contest while eight, four each Congress and independent candidates, were won uncontested. Among the 66 wards were election took place, 49 independent candidates won while 12 were won by Congress and four by BJP.
In all, there were 624 wards in Kashmir and among them 208 saw contest, 231 wards were won by candidates uncontested while 185 remained vacant. The counting took place at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC).
During voting, there were no signs of any electioneering in the run up to the polls boycotted by National Conference and PDP.
The BJP has swept the Jammu Municipal Corporation polls.
In the region that includes the districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri, the BJP candidates won 212 wards, followed by Independents 198, the Congress 110. In the 75-seat Jammu Municipal Corporation polls the BJP secured 43 seats, Congress won 14 while Independent candidates got 18 seats.
The BJP has won from 10 municipalities from south Kashmir while as Congress has won from four municipalities and independents got majority in three municipalities.
Of the 74 wards in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Independent candidates won 49 wards, Congress got 12 seats, BJP secured four while in one ward no votes were polled and 8 seats remained uncontested.
In north Kashmir’s three districts, the Congress won from three municipalities of Bandipora district and two from Baramulla district. The BJP also won two municipalities – Sopore and Watergam – in Baramulla while as its ally in J&K, People’s Conference (PC) has won with a majority in Handwara municipality. The Kupwara and Langate municipalities went to independents.
In Leh the Congress swept the polls winning all the 13 seats while in Kargil, the Congress won six and Independents seven wards.
Among the prominent winners was Junaid Azim Mattu who left the regional National Conference (NC) after he disagreed with the poll boycott decision by the NC.
Prominent among the losers was Asifa Tariq Karra, the wife of senior Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra.
Election to the urban local body polls was held in four phases from October 8 to October 16. There are over 3,000 candidates who contested the 1,145 wards across the state. In Kashmir, which has 624 wards, at least 231 candidates were elected unopposed while no candidates contested in 185 wards. The voter turnout in the polls was low, with 8.3 per cent votes cast in the first phase on October 8, 3.4 per cent in the second phase on October 10, 3.49 per cent in the third phase on October 13 and 4.2 per cent in the last phase on October 16. The overall percentage was 35.1 per cent.