SRINAGAR, May 28: The strength of Legislative Council has gone down to 22, leaving 14 seats vacant.
The Legislative Council membership is limited to 40 seats. However, as per section 50 of the state constitution, the Legislative Council has a strength of 36 seats.
Presently, there are 14 vacancies in the Legislative Council, leaving its strength to 22. Eight members had retired in March this year and these vacancies would be filled only when the Legislative Assembly is in place.
Similarly, there are four seats earmarked for Panchayats and two for municipalities to be filled by the electorate of Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies.
Out of 22 members in Legislative Council, the BJP has 10 members followed by PDP (8) National Conference (3) and Congress (1).
A source told Kashmir In-Depth that Chief Electoral Officer has written to the Governor administration to form Electoral College and submit list of designated returning and assistant returning officers for conduct of elections to six vacancies.
In absence of State Election Commission, the Chief Electoral Officer has designated powers of State Election Authority.
The Panchs and Sarpanchs form the Electoral College for elections to seats from Panchayat quota while municipal councilors form Electoral College for elections to two seats from the quota of ULBs. Of the four Panchayat seats, two seats are reserved for each Kashmir and Jammu regions. Similarly, both regions get one each seat under Municipal quota.
The seats of Panchayat are vacant since Shehnaz Ganaie, Ali Mohammad Dar of National Conference and Sham Lal Bhagat and Ghulam Nabi Monga from Congress completed their term in December last year. While seats under Urban Local Bodies are vacant since 2011.
