The last Assembly elections in the erstwhile state of J&K were held in 2014. The state was brought under Governor’s rule following the PDP-BJP coalition government collapse in June 2018. J&K was split into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in August 2019 when its special status envisaged in Article 370 was also withdrawn by the Centre.
A constitution bench of the Supreme Court had on December 11 last year while upholding the power of the President to abrogate Article 370, reasoning that the provision was a temporary measure meant to ensure J&K’s integration into India, set a deadline of September 2024 for the ECI to hold Assembly elections in the UT.
While some Kashmir watchers and also certain political parties are pessimistic towards the intent of the government at the Centre, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy who was in Jammu earlier this week to address a BJP rally organised on the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 37 confirmed that J&K Assembly elections would be held in September. Mr. Reddy who is the election in-charge of the BJP in J&K said that he and his party were sure that the people will vote for it to form a government of its own for maintaining the “development tempo and rooting out terrorism.”
The official sources here said that apart from reviewing the preparations being made for the Assembly polls at its meetings with the J&K government functionaries including Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pandurang K. Pole, the ECI will hold a meeting with the representatives of recognized national and regional political parties here on Thursday.
This would be followed by a meeting with the district deputy commissioners and superintendents of police which would be attended also by some other senior police officers. In the evening, the ECI will hold discussions in a separate meeting with senior officers of the J&K police, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMFs).
On August 9, the ECI will meet the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police DGP Rashmi Ranjan Swain before relocating to Jammu where it will hold a meeting with law enforcement agencies to review the preparedness for the elections and after addressing a press conference return to Delhi in the evening.
Last week, the ECI had asked the J&K government to shift officers serving in their home districts and also those who have served in a particular district for three years during the past four years.
