Says no simultaneous parliamentary, assembly elections in J&K
Dr Farooq, Omar, Apni Party express anguish
Srinagar, Mar 16: While announcing the Lok Sabha poll schedule on Saturday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) made it clear that there will be no simultaneous assembly and parliamentary polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
The five parliamentary constituencies will, however, go to the polls in five phases.
According to the details, the Udhampur constituency will witness the voting on April 19 while Jammu constituency will go for the polling on April 26.
The voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency will take place on May 07 while in Srinagar and Baramulla constituencies, the polling will be held on May 13 and 20th respectively.
However, the CEC further stated that the counting of votes will be held on June 04, 2024.
Furthermore, replying to a query about the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Kumar stated that the simultaneous elections as pitched by the people during the Election Commission’s visit to the Union Territory recently are not possible, citing the “additional security requirements”.
He further added that the meter for the assembly polls was started in December 2023.
However, he admitted that the people who met them during the recent visit to J&K pitched for the simultaneous elections, but the fact is that the administration has made it clear that the concurrent polls are not possible due to the requirement of more security.
“We have been informed that there will be nearly 10 candidates each for the assembly segments, thereby 1000 candidates will be in the fray and simultaneously need more security arrangements,” he informed the media in New Delhi.
Nonetheless, Kumar stated that the Commission is committed to conduct Assembly polls in J&K soon after the culmination of the parliamentary elections.
The CEC appealed to the Political parties to refrain from hate speeches and abuses during the campaigning. On the total number of voters, he said that there are 97 Crore voters registered in the country. He said that the major challenges for the ECI in the upcoming elections are: 4M’s—Muscle power, Money power, Misinformation and MCC violations.
The CEC Rajiv Kumar welcomed two newly appointed commissioners—Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhvir Singh stating that the “our team is now complete.”
Reacting over the ECI’s statement, National Conference (NC) President Dr Farooq Abdullah said that it is very disappointing that the assembly polls have not been announced despite the Government of India talking about the ‘One Nation, One Election’.
“It was the apt time to implement the GoI’s vision of one nation and one election by announcing simultaneous polls in Jammu and Kashmir. Four states are already going for the polls while the political parties also met the ECI team and pitched for the assembly elections as well, which we have been denied since 2014,” he said.
What is the reason behind it, something fishy seems behind it for which the polls are being delayed, he said.
NC Vice President Omar Abdullah also criticized the delay in holding assembly polls, saying that the election commission is unable to conduct assembly polls with the general election.
“So much for “One Nation One Election”. The EC is unable to conduct assembly polls in J&K with the general election even when they acknowledge that elections are due #GeneralElection2024,” Omar said in a post on X.
Apni Party senior vice president, Ghulam Hassan Mir also expressed anguish over the delay in conducting simultaneous polls in J&K and said that they were expecting that the ECI was told by the political parties that the assembly polls should be held concurrently.
“It is unfortunate the assembly polls have not been announced by the ECI when people were expecting it. We demand that there be early assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mir said.
