The BJP’s migrant Kashmiri Pandit candidates have won a number of seats in the upcoming municipal elections in Kashmir, their uncontested victory ruffling feathers in the Valley.

The National Conference on Monday raised a red flag against the BJP’s reliance on “migrants” — a euphemism for migrant Pandits.

NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said the BJP had ignored local candidates in most of the wards and migrants were being given precedence in distribution of tickets.

“It is rather inconceivable to think how a migrant (will) be able to look after… local issues; the candidates are being superimposed on completely unfamiliar terrain,” Sagar said in a statement.

BJP sources said the party has won dozens of seats unopposed in wards scheduled to vote in the first two phases in the Valley on October 8 and 10 and where the process of filing nominations has ended. A number of Kashmiri Pandits are among the winners.

Nearly 60 per cent of Valley seats in the first two phases are set to witness no contests following a separatist boycott call and a decision by key players like the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party to stay away from the polls.

The NC and the PDP decided to boycott these polls after they failed to get a commitment from the central government on safeguarding the state’s special status that has been challenged in court.

Their decision to skip the elections has given the BJP a chance to open its account in any election in the Valley.

Officials said that of the 315 wards due to vote in the first two phases, 185 wouldn’t see any contest, either because there are no candidates or because only one had turned up and have been declared winners.

A BJP leader, who asked not to be named, said the party had already won 50 out of 69 wards in the first two phases. “Nine of them are Kashmiri Pandits,” he said.

Another leader said the party has fielded dozens of migrant Kashmiri Pandits in these polls in the Valley and around a dozen of them had already won. It is the first time that Kashmiri Pandits — that too migrants — have won in any election in the Valley in such numbers.

Kashmiri Pandits accounted for around four per cent of the Valley’s population before they migrated to Jammu and other places following the outbreak of militancy.

NC leader Sagar said the urban body polls were being “supplanted” on people and the “democratic process is being played with, rather manufactured”.

“Good number of BJP candidates in many areas have been elected unopposed due to the want of other candidates,” he added.

BJP spokesperson Anil Gupta accused the NC of launching a false propaganda against his party.

“The majority of the candidates contesting on our tickets in the Valley are locals and they (the NC) are belittling the bravery of our cadre,” he said.

Gupta said the party had already won two municipalities (uncontested) in the Valley and would win many more.

“So far as their claim that we have won these seats uncontested is considered, they (the NC) should know that they won 73 out of 75 seats uncontested in the 1951 elections for the Constituent Assembly. It is this party that has ruined the state,” he said.

Of the 624 wards across the Valley, officials said, 177 found no candidates. In 215 wards, only one candidate is contesting, as a result of which he or she has won uncontested.

Elections will now be held in 232 wards, for which 715 candidates are in the fray.

There is still a day left for scrutinising the nominations for the last phase and three more days for withdrawal of papers. If there are more withdrawals, the number of wards witnessing a no-contest will increase.

An official said most of the wards where there will be no elections were in militancy-affected south Kashmir.

“There won’t be any elections in 16 of the 20 municipalities in south Kashmir. In all these 16 municipalities, there were either no candidates or the lone candidate won unopposed,” the official said.

Jammu, on the other hand, is witnessing a good contest, with candidates in only 13 of 534 wards winning unopposed. No ward has gone without a candidate.

Over 2,100 candidates, or three times the number in the Valley, are in the fray in Jammu, although the region has around 90 wards less.

NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said the elections were announced to hide the failure of the state and central governments to bring peace to Jammu and Kashmir. He regretted that the Centre was “fiddling with” a democratic process and demeaning it by “contrived elections”.