Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI, AUG 16 : The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the dates for the assembly elections for the state of Haryana and for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). This is the first election in J&K after its special status and statehood were revoked in 2019.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar announced that voting for the 90 assembly seats in J&K will take place in three phases: September 18, September 25, and October 1.

And elections for Haryana’s 90 assembly seats will be held on October 1, CEC Kumar added.

The counting of votes for both elections will take place on October 4.

The poll panel’s decision to hold assembly polls in J&K comes at the back of a September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court.

Jammu and Kashmir has 87.09 lakh voters, including 42.6 lakh women, across 90 constituencies; and voting will take place across 11,838 polling stations, CEC Kumar said while announcing the poll body’s schedule.

The CEC also announced that the electoral rolls for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana will be finalised on August 20 and 27, respectively.

“We recently visited Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana to take stock of the election preparation in these places. A great enthusiasm was seen among the people. They wanted to participate in the election process. People want elections to be conducted there as early as possible…The long queues at the polling booth in J&K during the Lok Sabha elections are proof that people not only want change but also want to raise their voice by becoming a part of that change,” CEC Kumar said.

The last assembly elections in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) were held in 2014, where the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the largest party and formed a coalition government with the BJP, with PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti as chief minister.

The state later came under the governor’s rule and subsequently, under the president’s rule in 2018, following the collapse of the BJP-PDP coalition.

In August 2019, the BJP-led Union Government abrogated Article 370, which granted special status to J&K, and revoked the state’s statehood in October 2019. The region was reorganised into the union territories of J&K and Ladakh.

In December 2023, India’s top court upheld the validity of the abrogation of Article 370 but directed the Union Government to expedite the process of restoring Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, excluding Ladakh, and to hold elections in the region.

The upcoming elections will be held for 90 assembly seats in the UT, out of which 74 seats are general constituencies, nine reserved for ST candidates, and seven for SC candidates.

Meanwhile, regional and national parties have welcomed the decision to hold assembly elections as directed by the Supreme Court.

The National Conference (NC), led by former CM Farooq Abdullah, has ruled out any pre-poll alliances, asserting it will form the next government independently. The PDP, led by former CM Mehbooba Mufti, will also contest the elections without alliances after opposing the NC in the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP did not field candidates in the Lok Sabha elections in Kashmir but is expected to contest the upcoming assembly elections in both the Valley and Jammu. Congress has announced it will field candidates in both regions while keeping options open for pre-poll and post-poll alliances.

Smaller parties such as the Apni Party led by Syed Altaf Bukhari, the Peoples Conference (PC) led by Sajad Gani Lone, and the Panthers Party are expected to field candidates in key constituencies.

In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell short of a majority but formed a government by allying with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Manohar Lal Khattar continued as chief minister, with Chautala serving as his deputy.

However, growing discord between the allies led to the collapse of the BJP-JJP government a month before the 2024 general elections. Khattar resigned as CM, and Nayab Singh Saini took over, surviving a floor test.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress made a comeback, winning 5 of the state’s 10 seats, positioning itself to potentially retake the assembly after a decade out of power.

-The New Indian Express