SRINAGAR, July 8: The highly anticipated Urban Local Body (ULB) elections in Jammu and Kashmir are unlikely to be held anytime soon due to a widening political consensus against the polls coupled with critical technical delays in updating voter lists,
Sources told Kashmir News Service (KNS) all major political parties in the Union Territory, including the ruling National Conference (NC), are reluctant to conduct the civic body elections.
Lawmakers across party lines reportedly fear that fully empowered ULB representatives create parallel governance structures in assembly constituencies that overlap with the traditional legislative and developmental authorities of MLAs.
“There is a growing sentiment among MLAs that municipal councillors and corporation heads operate as conflicting power centers within the exact same constituencies, diluting the mandate of the legislators,” a political source said.
Feeds Into Poll Hesitation
Political observers note that this resistance to creating another layer of local representation is deeply intertwined with the ongoing systemic friction at the highest levels of the Union Territory’s administration. The governance landscape in Jammu and Kashmir is already navigating significant administrative and political confusion stemming from the fact that the revised Transaction of Business Rules (TBR) are yet to be finalized and notified.
The division of powers between the Chief Minister, the Council of Ministers, and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) has frequently led to a subtle tug-of-war over jurisdictions, particularly concerning administrative control, policy decisions, and bureaucratic transfers. This existing friction has periodically slowed down administrative execution and hit smooth governance on the ground.
Sources tracking the development reveal that the file for the revised business rules remains structurally gridlocked between the local executive and the Centre. The J&K Cabinet’s subcommittee had initially drafted the amended rules to secure a greater say for the elected government in bureaucratic appointments and administrative decisions. However, following queries and objections raised by Raj Bhawan, the revised framework has faced prolonged delays. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently reiterated that the long-pending Transaction of Business Rules are still awaiting formal approval and clearance from the Centre to resolve the ongoing “governance confusion.”
Insiders stress that with the top-tier power balance between the Secretariat and Raj Bhawan still undergoing a delicate adjustment process, the political class is wary of introducing a third competitive element. Lawmakers fear that injecting fully empowered municipal corporations and councils into this equation will trigger fresh friction, creating an uncontrolled, parallel power structure at the grassroots level that would further entangle the administrative machinery.
Political sources state that until the operational rules of business are completely cleared and unambiguously notified to settle the ongoing power-sharing dynamic, adding another tier of local governance remains entirely off the table.
Compounding this political hesitation is a significant legal and technical roadblock involving the voter lists.
Sources explained to KNS that while rural Panchayat elections utilize locally updated registries, municipal elections depend entirely on parent data managed by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Because the ECI has not refreshed the region’s voter registry since the concluding phases of the 2024 Assembly elections, officials state that pulling off a local body election cycle is virtually impossible under current conditions.
This administrative freeze matches the central poll body’s broader regional timeline.
Earlier this year, the ECI explicitly deferred its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) program for Jammu and Kashmir, alongside Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, citing unresolved demographic and environmental bottlenecks.
In an official statement, the commission had clarified that the regional voter revision schedule would remain on hold until the conclusion of Phase-II of the Census and a thorough assessment of seasonal weather hazards in high-altitude, snow-bound areas.
Meanwhile, grassroots urban administration remains at a complete standstill. The five-year terms of elected representatives across J&K’s 78 Urban Local Bodies—including the key municipal corporations of Jammu and Srinagar—expired between October and December 2023, leaving the civic bodies under the control of government-appointed bureaucratic administrators for nearly three years.(KNS)
