Srinagar, Oct 30: A Town Hall, housing a Municipal office, was completely damaged in a mysterious fire which broke out late last night in south Kashmir district of Shopian, where no polling was held during Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections, as out of 17 wards, 12 BJP candidates were elected unopposed while no nomination was filed in five wards.
The incident occurred last night on the eve of oath ceremony of newly-elected 12 corporators on Tuesday.
Official sources said that fire broke out in the record room of the Municipal office at around 2000 hrs.
Fire tenders from different parts of the district were rushed to douse off the leaping flames, clearly visible from a distance. However, before the tenders could reach the spot, the building was completely damaged.
Out of 17 wards, 12 seats had only one contestant each while no nomination was filed in five wards in Shopian following a boycott call given by separatists and threat issued by militants. Almost all the representatives elected unopposed to the 12 wards in Shopian live in Jammu region. It needs to be seen if they would relocate to Shopain district to carry out developmental works in their respective wards.
The ULB polls witnessed one of the lowest voter turnouts in the history of the state, where two main regional political parties, including National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), besides CPI(M) boycotted polls, alleging that the Centre and state governments did not clear their stand on Article 35-A.
Contrary to election procedures, no campaigning was held by contestants during the ULB polls, whose names were also kept secret due to security reasons. The candidates were kept in secure places following the threat.
