Ahead of counting of votes, political slugfest over nominated members
With the J&K Assembly election results set to be declared on October 8, the opposition is attacking the BJP on the issue of nomination of five candidates to the House.
As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, the Lieutenant Governor has the power to nominate five members, including two women, two Kashmiri migrants and one displaced person from the Pakistan Occupied J&K (PoJK), to the legislative Assembly.
Alleging that there might be a “foul play” to give strength to the BJP in the Assembly, opposition parties, including Congress, National Conference, Shiv Sena and others, are demanding that the new government, which will be formed after the declaration of results, should have the authority to nominate five members.
After consistent attacks, the BJP today said it was the Congress that brought the provision for the nomination of members to the legislature in UTs.
“There is no merit in statements made by the Congress regarding L-G Manoj Sinha’s powers to nominate five MLAs in near future. A law empowering the Central Government, or the L-G, to nominate a specified number of MLAs to a Union Territory Legislature exists in the Constitution from 1963,” said BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta.
He said there was nothing new in this law, which was a constitutional amendment by the Congress government. Giving details, Gupta claimed that the relevant provision regarding nominations can be traced back to the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963.
“This law specified that the Puducherry legislature was to have 30 elected MLAs and three nominated MLAs. The UT Act, 1963, was moved in Parliament by then Union Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and it was to create a legislature for the UT of Puducherry,” Gupta said.
He said the initial proposal of the Congress government of the time was to have a fully nominated legislature with no provision for carving out single-member territorial Assembly segments.
“When the government of the day faced strong opposition, it was forced to have 30 elected and three nominated MLAs. This is how the tradition of nominated MLAs in any UT started,” he pointed out.
The J&K Reorganisation Act - 2019 states that, “Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (3) of Section 14, the Lieutenant Governor of the successor Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate two members to the Legislative Assembly to give representation to women, if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly”.
The amendment in the Act in 2023 clearly states that, “The Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of J&K may nominate not more than two members, one of whom should be a woman, from the community of Kashmiri Migrants, to the J&K Legislative Assembly”.
The Congress and the NC had recently expressed objections to the nomination of five members by the L-G and alleged that the move would help the BJP to get five of its leaders nominated to the Legislative Assembly prior to the process of government formation in J&K. The parties termed the move undemocratic and against the mandate of people.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) Jammu-Kashmir unit has also expressed apprehension of playing with people’s mandate under the guise of nominated MLAs. UT chief of the party Manish Sahni said the BJP was trying to play with the people’s mandate. He said “misusing the provision for nomination to change the majority or minority situation can prove to be harmful”.
Opposition parties allege ‘foul play’
Alleging that there might be a “foul play” to give strength to the BJP in the Assembly, opposition parties, including Congress, National Conference, Shiv Sena and others, are demanding that the new government, which will be formed after the declaration of results, should have the authority to nominate five members.
