On Saturday (16th March), the Chief Election Commission (CEC) Rajiv Kumar announced that the assembly elections for the Union territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir will be held after the Lok Sabha elections. He pointed out that holding simultaneous elections in Jammu and Kashmir is not viable from a security point of view, as each candidate will have to be provided security as and when elections are held in the Union Territory.
The Lok Sabha elections for a total of 543 seats will be held in seven phases beginning on 19th April and the results will be announced on 4th June. The polls for 5 Parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir UT will go for voting in five phases. In each phase, voting will be underway only in 1 Lok Sabha constituency and the dates for the same are as follows –
- Phase 1, 19 April – Udhampur
- Phase 2, 26 April – Jammu
- Phase 3, 7 May – Anantnag-Rajouri
- Phase 4, 13 May – Srinagar
- Phase 5, 20 May – Baramulla
Regarding the delay in assembly polls, the CEC explained that forces have to be provided to every candidate in the Union Territory, which is not possible at a time when elections are being held across the country.
The CEC added that their clock for holding elections in J&K UT started in December 2023 as holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir was not possible because the Reorganisation Act and the delimitation process were out of sync.
Kumar said, “The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed in 2019. There was a provision for 107 seats, 24 of which were in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Then the delimitation commission came and there was a change in the seats…. The reorganisation Act and delimitation were not in sync. That happened in December 2023. So our meter started running from December 2023.”
Notably, the poll body pointed out that while all political parties wanted the assembly elections to be held simultaneously, the administrative machinery stated that it couldn’t be done because of the need to provide adequate security to each candidate.
The CEC added, “All parties in Jammu and Kashmir said the Assembly election should be held with the parliamentary polls, but the entire administrative machinery said it cannot be done simultaneously. Every Assembly segment would have 10-12 candidates, which would mean more than 1,000 candidates. Every candidate has to be provided with forces. It was not possible at this time.”
He reiterated that the Election Commission is committed to holding elections in J&K as soon as these elections are over. He assured, “But we stand committed that as soon as these elections are over, we will hold elections there.”
For those unversed, while the threat of terrorism is perennial in the valley, Pakistan along with its proxies, predominantly Jihadis ramps up efforts to malign the democratic setup and paint a horrifying picture of Jammu and Kashmir through bloodshed and chaos.
