Srinagar: The electors in Jammu and Kashmir appear to be more enthusiastic about voting than usual as they are going to elect an assembly for the first time in over a decade.
Amid tight security, the polling in 24 segments of the 90-member assembly will be held on Wednesday in the first of the three-phased elections. The second phase of the elections is scheduled to be held on September 25 and the third and final on October 1 whereas the counting of votes will take place on October 8.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) officials here said that over 23.27 lakh voters are entitled to cast ballots on Wednesday to determine the fate of 219 candidates. They said that the ECI has established as many as 3,276 polling stations with webcasting to ensure a fair and transparent voting process.
The 24 segments where the polling will be held on Wednesday are spread in seven districts of J&K- Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, and Kulgam in the Kashmir Valley and Doda, Ramban, and Kishtwar in the Jammu region.
According to the latest electoral rolls, 23,27,580 lakh voters, eligible to vote in the first phase, include 11,76,462 lakh males, 11,51,058 lakh females, and 60 third genders.
The last Assembly elections in J&K were held in 2014. The erstwhile state was brought under the Governor's rule following the collapse of the coalition government of the regional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in June 2018. The following year, the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that envisaged special status to J&K for over seven decades.
The move was upheld by the Supreme Court in December last year. The five-judge constitutional bench of the top court ruled that J&K special status had been a “temporary provision” and that removing it was constitutionally valid.
In this election, many of those who are throwing their hat in the ring are former separatists and their embrace of the electoral politics is being seen by some analysts as an acknowledgement of the failure of the policy of the boycott politics that various separatist groups pursued since the outbreak of militancy in 1989.
Some of the former separatists who are in the fray are openly asserting that the gun and violence have only brought miseries to the people of J&K.
