J&K’s Election Commission headless ahead of publication of electoral roll

Jammu and Kashmir is yet to appoint the new Chief Electoral Officer of State Election Department which is lying headless from the last two months amid the ongoing process of special summary revision and publication of final electoral rolls on November 25.

In the middle of a special summary revision of electoral rolls, the Government of India on September 11 transferred Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Electoral Officer, Hirdesh Kumar and appointed him as Deputy Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India for a five-year term.

Since then more than 2 months has passed but the government failed to find his replacement and fill the important post, which is still laying vacant amid the crucial exercise of Special Summary Revision 2022, which is taking place for the first time in Union Territory after new delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies.

As per the schedule of Special Summer Revision of Electoral rolls, the election department is supposed to publish the final publication of electoral rolls on 25th November, 2022. However in the absence of the CEO, ambiguity looms over the whole exercise as the CEO remains the final signatory authority.

Earlier, Kumar landed in controversy over his statement about the inclusion of 25 lakh new voters during the summary revision of electoral rolls, including the non-local voters.

Earlier, ECI notified the schedule of Special Summary Revision Of Electoral Rolls with reference to 1st October 2022 as qualifying date.

The commission also introduced user friendly forms for voter registration and a provision has been made in the modified registration forms for linking Aadhaar number with Electoral Roll Data.

The Integrated draft electoral rolls were published on 15th September, 2022 and the last date of submitting claims and objections were between 15th September to 25th October.
The final publication of electoral rolls will be made on 25th November, 2022.