LC Biennial Elections : Vikram Randhawa, Balbir Singh elected to Upper House

5 Dariya News

Jammu 17-Apr-2017

In the keenly contested biennial elections to the two Legislative Council seats, BJP’s Vikram Randhawa and INC’s Thakur Balbir Singh were declared elected by Secretary, J&K Legislative Assembly Mohammad Ramzan, who was designated as Returning Officer (RO) for the election.Thakur Balbir Singh secured 31 votes while Vikram Randhawa secured 29 votes and both were declared winners. Mr. Randhawa was declared winner on the basis of draw of lots, a procedure laid down in the Constitution, as the PDP candidate Abdul Qayoom Dar also secured the equal number of votes (29).The elections were held at the Central Hall of the Legislative Assembly Secretariat under the overall supervision of Chief Electoral Officer, J&K Mr Shantmanu, for which appropriate arrangements were put in place there.The voting commenced at 9:00AM and ended at 4:00 PM as per schedule. All 89 MLAs (including two nominated) exercised their franchise through open ballot.It is pertinent to mention that as many as eight candidates were in fray for elections to six seats of the Legislative Council, which will fall vacant due to retirement of 6 LC Members on April 19. Out of the total 8 candidates in fray, four candidates namely Yasir Reshi, G L Raina, Aga Syed Mehmood and Pradeep Sharma have already made their entry to the   Upper House unopposed as there was no candidate in fray.  One candidate Ashok Kumar Bhat had withdrawn his candidature.There were only three candidates in straight fray for the two seats, which included PDP’s Abdul Qayoom Dar (Jammu Province), BJP’s Vikram Randhawa (Jammu Province) and NC-INC’s joint candidate Thakur Balbir Singh (Jammu Province).With the declaration of the results to the two seats today, the election process for six MLC seats falling vacant on April 19, 2017 has been completed.