{"id":65224,"date":"2026-02-21T11:22:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/shantmanu-sworn-in-as-jk-state-election-commissioner-pledges-to-conduct-pending-local-body-polls\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:22:44","slug":"shantmanu-sworn-in-as-jk-state-election-commissioner-pledges-to-conduct-pending-local-body-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/shantmanu-sworn-in-as-jk-state-election-commissioner-pledges-to-conduct-pending-local-body-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Shantmanu Sworn In as J&#038;K State Election Commissioner, Pledges to Conduct Pending Local Body Polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Srinagar, Jammu &amp; Kashmir<\/strong> \u2014 Former bureaucrat <strong>Shantmanu<\/strong> was sworn in on Saturday as the <strong>State Election Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir<\/strong> for a five-year term, emphasizing the urgent need to hold the long-pending <strong>panchayat and urban local body elections<\/strong> in the Union Territory.<\/p>\n<p>The oath of office was administered by <strong>Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha<\/strong> at <strong>Lok Bhavan<\/strong>, in a ceremony attended by <strong>Chief Minister Omar Abdullah<\/strong>, Deputy Chief Minister <strong>Surinder Choudhary<\/strong>, Speaker <strong>Abdul Rahim Rather<\/strong>, Chief Secretary <strong>Atal Dulloo<\/strong>, and Director General of Police <strong>Nalin Prabhat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the media, Shantmanu described taking charge as a matter of \u201cgreat happiness and pride.\u201d He stressed that <strong>local body elections are vital for strengthening decentralized governance and grassroots development<\/strong>, noting that the long delay in conducting these polls makes them even more crucial. \u201cI am happy to formally begin my responsibilities. I will work with full commitment to ensure effective discharge of my duties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The tenures of municipal councils ended in <strong>October-November 2023<\/strong>, while panchayats and block development councils completed their five-year term on <strong>January 9, 2024<\/strong>. District development councils\u2019 tenures end on <strong>February 24<\/strong>, leaving Jammu and Kashmir without functioning elected local bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said delays in holding elections were caused by multiple factors, including the <strong>delimitation exercise<\/strong> and <strong>reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes<\/strong>. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had earlier stated that the government was making arrangements to conduct these elections at the earliest, but the vacancy of the State Election Commissioner had been a major hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>Under the <strong>Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act<\/strong> and relevant <strong>Municipal Acts<\/strong>, the <strong>State Election Commission<\/strong> is responsible for preparing electoral rolls and conducting local elections. On <strong>February 17<\/strong>, the Lieutenant Governor appointed Shantmanu as the new State Election Commissioner for a period of five years or until he attains the age of 70, whichever is earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Shantmanu, a 1991-batch <strong>AGMUT cadre IAS officer<\/strong>, recently retired as <strong>Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner<\/strong> in Jammu and Kashmir. He succeeds <strong>B.R. Sharma<\/strong>, who completed his tenure in <strong>April 2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar, Jammu &amp; Kashmir \u2014 Former bureaucrat Shantmanu was sworn in on Saturday as the State Election Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir for a five-year term, emphasizing the urgent need to hold the long-pending panchayat and urban local body elections in the Union Territory. The oath of office was administered by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jammu","8":"category-kashmir"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}