Srinagar
A number of candidates filed nominations for upcoming elections to the Urban Local Bodies in Kupwara and among them include the brother of PDP’s member parliament Fayaz Ahmad Mir.
Reyaz Ahmad Mir, brother of senior Peoples Democratic party leader and Raja Sabha member Fayaz Ahmad Mir, filed the nomination papers along with 19 other candidates for 1 to 6 municipality wards and 23 for 7 to 13 wards. Among other candidates, for 1 to 16 wards, seven are from national parties, 12 are independent. There are also some woman candidates who filed nomination for wards reserved for the fairer gender—2 candidates for ward 1 and 3 for ward-4.
Reyaz Ahmad Mir, who was a worker with PDP until yesterday said that he resigned from the party to contest the polls.
Peoples Democratic Party, Like National Conference, has announced to boycott the elections to ULBs and Panchayats, saying that the situation created by linking panchayat polls with the case pending in Supreme Court on Article 35A has created apprehension in the minds of the people, “who see an assault on the special constitutional position of the state.”
Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti while announcing the decision, read out the resolution passed at the party meeting at a presser here and said: “It was felt that any attempt to impose any electoral exercise in the current atmosphere of fear and apprehension would seriously erode the credibility of the process… It (conducting elections) would defeat its very purpose.”
“The party urges the government to review its decision to hold elections to local bodies at this juncture, against the will of the people, and instead focus on confidence-building measures so that the state is assured of the inviolability of the constitutional guarantees that make it a special part of the Union of India,” she had said. (GNS)
