Election Commission To Engage Political Parties In Jammu And Kashmir For Upcoming Assembly Polls
Wasim Majnoon Mir
SRINAGAR, 06 Aug: The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to engage with political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to gather feedback on conducting Assembly polls in the Union Territory (UT).
On Tuesday, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir issued letters inviting various political parties to a meeting with the ECI. Each party has been allocated specific time slots for their meeting.
The ECI’s visit, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is scheduled from August 8-10, just weeks before the Supreme Court’s September 30 deadline for holding elections in the UT. Kumar will be joined by Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu.
In March, Kumar, then the sole member of the commission to visit the UT, assured political parties and the public that elections would soon be held. The other two commissioner positions were filled just before the Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 16.
Following a record turnout in the Lok Sabha elections, Kumar noted, “This active participation is a huge positive for Assembly elections to be held soon so that the democratic process continues to thrive in the Union Territory.”
During their visit, the ECI will review the situation with the CEO and the central forces coordinator, as well as with election officers, police superintendents from all districts, the chief secretary, and the director general of police. On August 10, the ECI will visit Jammu for a review meeting with enforcement agencies and will hold a press conference to brief the media on their review process.
These Assembly elections will be the first since the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganization of the state into two Union Territories in 2019. The delimitation exercise has increased the number of Assembly seats from 83 to 90, excluding those allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In December, the Supreme Court directed the ECI to hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30. Indicating that the elections are imminent, the ECI last week instructed the UT administration to transfer officers posted in their home districts, a standard pre-election exercise.
In June, the ECI decided to accept applications for ‘common symbols’ from registered unrecognized parties in the UT, further signaling the readiness for the forthcoming elections.
