This story is from February 19, 2020

SRINAGAR: Bypolls to 12,500-odd vacant panchayat seats in J&K were on Tuesday postponed till further orders after the office of the election authority received an advisory from the home department not to hold polling between March 5 and 20 "due to security concerns".

A new schedule for the eight-phase bypolls will be notified after two to three weeks, chief electoral officer Shailendra Kumar said.

The announcement came within hours of Kumar meeting functionaries of four political parties to address their concerns about the conduct of the first electoral exercise in J&K since it officially became a Union Territory in October 31.

Barring BJP, the parties set two conditions for their participation in the bypolls — that polling should be "on non-party basis" and the administration should release all their functionaries in detention since August 5 last year.

After the meeting, representatives of the parties told reporters that the chief electoral officer promised to raise these issues with "higher-ups" and get back at the earliest.

Rattan Lal Gupta of NC, GN Monga of Congress and Harshdev Singh of the National Panthers Party (NPP) were among those who attended the meeting. PDP boycotted the meeting, saying it could not be part of any electoral process till its functionaries, including former CM Mehbooba Mufti , remained in detention.

Monga said all parties were of the opinion that any poll exercise in J&K would be worth the trouble only if the administration promised an atmosphere free of fear. "A peaceful atmosphere is the primary requirement for an elected candidate to be able to work freely for the people."

Gupta of NC said he still believed the situation was not conducive to elections. In a letter to the chief electoral officer last week, the NC said it was "a strong votary of the democratic process", but it would be "practically impossible" to take part in the panchayat polls if party president Farooq Abdullah , vice-president Omar Abdullah and general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar remained in detention under the Public Safety Act.

