Parties gear up for polls, EC to activate electoral processes
With the completion of delimitation of 90 Assembly and five Parliamentary constituencies of the Union Territory (UT), the Election Commission will activate the requisite electoral processes by initiating revision of electoral rolls from next month paving the way for much awaited assembly elections in the union territory likely to be held in November-December.
Moreover in anticipation of elections in coming months, the political activities have gained momentum in J&K, as parties including the BJP, NC, Congress and even AAP have started preparing for the next Assembly polls.
Sources said in coming weeks, the EC will go for summary revision of electoral rolls which haven’t been updated for the last three years. The revision is mandatory before initiating the exercise for conduct of Assembly polls. The last special summary revision of the J&K electoral roll was conducted in 2019 in J&K, ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
The EC will have to realign polling stations and booths as per the new demarcation of constituencies- an exercise that typically goes into one or two months but may take longer considering a significant redrawing of constituencies has been announced by the Delimitation Commission. The EC will also have to post officers and notify one each for the 90 constituencies.
Last month PM Narendra Modi held a public rally in adjoining Samba district which generated huge response from the public. Couple of days back BJP national president JP Nadda during a party meet in Jaipur has dropped hints that after completion of Delimitation exercise, Assembly elections will be held in the Union Territory shortly. Next Sunday BJP will be holding its state executive meeting in Katra on May 29 along with other outreach programmes.
Embattled Congress in order to put up a united front ahead of crucial elections will be holding a two day conclave ‘Chintan Shivar’ at Patnitop from June 1. The conclave will be attended by senior party leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad and J&K party chief GA Mir.
National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah held a week-long tour of the Rajouri-Poonch region which finally culminated in Jammu. Omar held public rallies in Budhal, Kotrakna, Kalakote among other areas of the region.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has also said in an interview that the party is preparing for elections against odds, delimitation, and retaining hope.
Meanwhile, the new player AAP too has thrown its hat in J&K’s political arena, as many senior politicians of J&K have joined the party in recent days including Harsh Dev Singh, Balwant Singh Mankotia and DDC Suchetgarh member TS Tony. Senior AAP leader and Punjab minister Harjot Singh Bains was in Jammu on Saturday and has shared that his party is going to fight the next assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir with all seriousness to ensure good governance in the Union Territory.
J&K Delimitation Order came into force on May 20. As per the delimitation order, J&K will now have 90 seats instead of 83 earlier, with 47 seats allotted to Kashmir and 46 to Jammu region. The UTs will have nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes.
J & K has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP broke its alliance with PDP forcing the chief minister of the PDP-BJP alliance Mehbooba Mufti to resign. Five months later, on November 28, 2018, then J&K governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the legislative assembly and a month later on December 19, 2018, President Ram Nath Kovind issued a proclamation promulgating President’s Rule in J&K under Article 356 of the Constitution of India.
Eight months later, the BJP government abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated J&K into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
