J&K District Development Council polls to be held in 8 phases from Nov 28 to Dec 19

The first-ever elections to the newly conceived District Development Councils (DDCs) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held over eight phases beginning November 28. The setting-up of 14 territorial constituencies or DDCs in each district was facilitated by an amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, by the Central government on October 17.

The members of the DDCs will be elected directly by voters in the Union Territory. Along with DDCs, bypolls for the vacant seats in existing urban and local bodies have also been scheduled. Elections for DDCs and urban local bodies will be held on party basis.

In the first set of elections to be held in J&K since the erstwhile state was split into two UTs, anybody ordinarily residing in the Union Territory of J&K for the past six months will be eligible to vote, even irrespective of the person’s domicile status.