After a decade, Jammu and Kashmir are going to have Assembly elections in three phases starting September 18. This will be the first exercise since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, when residents of the Union Territory will vote to elect a government.
Apart from this, polls to the 90-seat Haryana Assembly are also scheduled by the Election Commission on October 1, with results for both regions to be announced on October 4. These elections will serve as the first significant popularity test for the BJP and the opposition alliance, INDIA, following the recent Lok Sabha polls.
It is informed that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, accompanied by Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, announced that the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election will take place in three phases on September 18, September 25, and October 1.
As the BJP suffered setbacks in the Lok Sabha polls, especially in Haryana, it is keen to regain political ground by retaining control in Haryana and making a strong bid in Jammu and Kashmir where it had traditionally held sway. On its part, the Congress looks to carry forward its political revival by booting out the BJP from power in Haryana after ten years and making gains in the Jammu region.
The National Conference and PDP, regional parties and members of the INDIA bloc along with Congress in Kashmir Valley, have traditionally dominated elections here. That has been the trend in Assembly polls, though both contested the recent Lok Sabha elections separately.
In the 2019 Haryana elections, the BJP won 40 of the 90 seats and formed a government in coalition with the Jananayak Janta Party. In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the BJP won 25 of 87 seats and allied with the PDP to run a government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. After delimitation, Jammu and Kashmir have 90 Assembly seats.
CEC Kumar also said that the Assembly polls of Maharashtra, which were held simultaneously with Haryana in 2019, would be declared after some time as security troops in J and K cannot be diverted. The Commission is also planning to club the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir with Haryana as part of four elections including Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Delhi.
According to Kumar, a fresh round of elections would be announced subsequently after the polling in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana is over. In Jammu and Kashmir, 24 seats will be covered in the first phase, 26 in the second phase, and 40 in the final phase.
The last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in five phases between November and December 2014. Wednesday's announcement by the Election Commission comes after a Supreme Court decision that upheld the Centre's move to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and directed that Assembly elections be held by September 30.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the declaration by the Election Commission and termed it a step that would further "embed democracy" and bring a new era of development to the region. CEC Kumar pointed out that in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the people of Jammu and Kashmir showed faith in the democratic process by choosing ballots over bullets and boycotts, which was reflected in the voter turnout.
