JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Congress stated on Thursday that the BJP opposes panchayat and urban local body elections to be held in the Union Territory because it is certain to lose these elections. The working president of the Jammu and Kashmir Congress, Raman Bhalla, stated that his party was the one that brought up the subject of OBC reservations in ULBs and panchayats in line with the 73rd and 74th amendments in a letter cum objections to the J&K Chief Electoral Officer on September 13, 2023, demanding reservations to OBCs in addition to holding ULB elections under the State Election Commission (SEC) in accordance with the Constitution. “The BJP in power is terrified of losing any kind of election, including assembly elections, ULB elections, and panchayat polls.Since the LAHC-Kargil elections served as a BJP campaign trailer, they are afraid of losing and hence do not want to have elections. According to the law and the constitution, elections to these bodies had to be held one month before the end of their five-year terms; “While all municipal bodies, including Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations, will complete their term by November 14, the elections should have been conducted and completed by October 15 but it has been delayed and deferred,” Bhalla told reporters here. “The real picture will unfold after the Assembly elections and the BJP shall be wiped out in the Jammu region too,” he said.Leaders of the JKPCC questioned the recovery of arrears of the abolished Irrigation tax from farmers, citing a case of alleged bureaucratic arbitrariness and “anti-farmer” decisions of the “BJP government-controlled Union Territory administration”. However, the PDP-BJP government had abolished this tax (Abhiyana) in the 2015–2016 budget. “What right does the government have to recover the waived off/ abolished tax and even charge future tax when an elected government has abolished the same” , asked the politician.
