Srinagar: When Panchayat elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018, two former chief ministers of the erstwhile state Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti termed the polls as a "futile exercise."
Their parties National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stayed away from the polls announcing a boycott. Despite both the Kashmir-based traditional parties not participating in the Panchayat elections, polls were held successfully with 75 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise.
