Ahead of local bodies polls, J-K BJP expels 15 'rebel' workers for anti-party activities

The Jammu and Kashmir BJP Wednesday here expelled 15 "rebel" workers from the party for anti-party activities ahead of the local bodies polls.

"It was unanimously decided to expel the workers from the primary membership of the party forthwith for having filed nomination papers against official candidates of the party for ULB and municipal polls in J&K," a BJP spokesman said.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the BJP State Election Management Committee at the party office in Trikuta Nagar here, which was presided over by state president Ravinder Raina, he said.

Those who were expelled from party include JatinSethi, Omkar Singh Bose, Deepak Kumar, Kulbushan Vohra, SubashSharma, Raj Kumar, Kulbir Sambyal, Trilochan Wazir, Tarsem Choudhary, Dhan Sarup, Rajinder Gupta, Sunny Segal, Anita Gupta, Balbir Gupta and Vikram Dogra, he said.

Meanwhile, an election department official said around 17 lakh electors are eligible to vote in the four-phased local bodies and municipal polls in Jammu and Kashmir, beginning October 8.

"As many as 16,97,291 electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in 1,145 wards across the state in four phases from October 8," he said.

The first phase of polling will be undertaken on October 8, followed by the second phase on October 10, third phase on October 13 and the fourth and final phase on October 16, the official said.

The counting of votes will be done on October 20, he added.