NC stays out from elections
By News Agency of Kashmir
Srinagar : The Upper House of the state legislature today elected PDP Member Ghulam Nabi Lone (Hanjoora) a consensus nominee of coalition candidate as Legislative Council Chairman, while the National Conference members stood out from the election.
Ashok Sharma of Congress moved the motion proposing Lone as the chairman of the J&K Legislative Council, while Ved Prakash Gupta seconded the motion.
A similar motion was also moved by Bilal Ahmad Lodhi of PDP and seconded by Ali Mohammad Sofi.
However, National Conference who had proposed Sakina Itoo's candidature staged a walk out on the issue of Human Rights violation along with Panther party president Bhim Singh soon after the house met for today's business..
National Conference had nominated Sakina Ittoo as party candidate at the last moment despite having very slim chances for winning the coveted post.
After the walk out by the NC members the acting Chairman P Namgayal waited for their presence for few minutes, but the opposition members  did not turn up.
Later, Namgayal held a voice vote in which all 22 members present unanimously elected Lone as the new Chairman.
Observers believe that the opposition party deliberately stayed out the election keeping in view the bleak chances of wining the coveted post. The number game was completely in favour of Hanjoora as he was being supported by all the coalition alliance, while Sakina Itoo had support from only National Conference.
At present coalition has 23 members (Congress 15, PDP 9), while the number of National Conference members has been reduced to six in the state legislative council. Beside these Panthers Party has one member in the upper house.