Srinagar: The recently elected District Development Council (DDC) members from twin districts of north Kashmir including Bandipora and Baramulla are all set to elect their maiden Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons on Saturday with People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) visibly lacking the numbers in Bandipora as the conglomerate has only four DDC members—two each from National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the election for DDC chairperson was adjourned in Baramulla on February 08 due to lack of quorum.
“Against the requirement of 10 members, only seven were present in Baramulla,” they had said, adding that those present in Baramulla included Safina Baig (Independent), Muhammad Muzaffar (Independent), three members from Peoples Conference and two from Apni Party.
Going by rules governing election for chairperson/vice-chairperson of DDCs, the quorum for first meeting of chairperson and vice-chairperson shall be two-third of the elected members. However, the quorum for second and subsequent election meetings will be eight in Baramulla district as rules mandate that election will take place if only a simple majority is present.
Out of 14 members, two each are from Apni Party, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress while Peoples Conference (PC) has three members and independents are also three in number.
Sources said that Quratul Bashir, who is PDP’s DDC member will be contesting for the Chairperson post while her rival will be an Independent DDC member Safina Beigh.
They said Quratul Bashir will be supported by NC and Congress DDC members tomorrow.
In Bandipora, the fate of PAGD candidates will also be known tomorrow in a meeting at the Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) office in mini Secretariat.
For the Chairperson post, two candidates are in fray including Apni Party’s Firdousa Akhter and NC’s Abdul Gani, who will be fighting as PAGD candidate, sources said, adding that for Vice Chairperson post an Independent Tahir Qadri will be contesting against PDP’s Kousar Shafiq.
Notably, there are only 13 DDC members as the counting of votes at 14th constituency—Hajin-C was not held in December last year.
The DDC members include five from NC, three from PDP, two from Apni Party, one from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and two are independents—(KNO)