Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday that the assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir will be held after the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
Speaking at a press conference, Kumar said political parties in Jammu and Kashmir were in favour of holding assembly elections in Union Territory along with parliamentary or Lok Sabha polls. "...but the entire administrative machinery said it cannot be done simultaneously" from the security point of view, said Kumar.
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Why J&K polls will be held after Lok Sabha Elections 2024?
The Chief Election Commissioner cited the "administrative machinery" as telling him that if assembly polls are held along with the Lok Sabha Elections, then each assembly segment would have around 10-12 candidates. This would mean there will be around 1,000 candidates.
"And in J&K, every candidate is to be provided with two section force. This would mean we need additional companies of around 1000, 500, 400 personnel…," the CEC said.
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Kumar argued that since there will be security demand in the entire country during voting for the Lok Sabha polls, “it was appearing to be difficult to provide security for a particular state (Jammu and Kashmir for assembly elections) at the same time".
"But we stand committed that once these Lok Sabha Elections 2024 are over, we will have forces available with us and then we will immediately hold elections there (Jammu and Kashmir)," Kumar said.
He earlier explained that the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was amended in December 2023 after a delimitation exercise and the clock had started ticking for the Election Commission (EC) since then.
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"The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed in 2019. There was a provision for 107 seats, 24 of which were in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Then the delimitation commission came and there was a change in the seats…The Reorganisation Act and delimitation were not in sync. That happened in December 2023," Kumar said.
He said it was only after December 2023 that it became legal for the Election Commission to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
There are five Lok Sabha constituencies and 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission said earlier that the total electors in Jammu and Kashmir stands at around 86.9 lakh, as on March 7, 2024. The number of women electors stands at approximately 42.55 lakh while men voters stand at 44.34 lakh.