Assembly polls in J&K after 10 years, 3-phase elections from Sept 18; Haryana votes on Oct 1

New Delhi: Assembly elections will return to trouble-torn Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of ten years with the Election Commission on Friday announcing a three-phased polls from September 18 that will enable people to choose a government after the bifurcation of the state into two union territories and scrapping of special status.

Haryana with 2.01 crore voters will also go to polls along with Jammu and Kashmir but in one phase on October 1 as the Election Commission decided to decouple Maharashtra, which went to polls with the north Indian state in 2019, owing primarily to the security requirements needed for conducting polls in the union territory.

The dates for Jammu and Kashmir polls to 90 seats will be September 18, September 25 and October 1 and the counting of votes for both the states will be on October 4, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference. Twenty-four seats will go to the polls in the first phase in Jammu and Kashmir, which has a total of 87.09 lakh voters, while the second and third phases will have 26 and 40 seats respectively.

"We are keeping the election (period) short in the true spirit of what we said on June 3. We are having a shorter election period," Kumar said  in the presence of Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. The next set of elections will be announced after the completion of the polls in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, he said.

The elections in Haryana as well as Jammu and Kashmir are considered crucial for the ruling NDA and the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc, as it comes three months after the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP suffered a setback though it managed to return to power riding on coalition partners' numbers.

The last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in November-December 2014 in five phases. The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had ceased to be in existence from November 2018 and EC had not conducted Assembly polls along with Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and 2024.

The announcement by the EC comes months after the Supreme Court upheld the Centre's decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir's special status and directed that Assembly elections be held by September 30.

Security will be of prime concern in Jammu and Kashmir with terrorist activities witnessing a surge in Jammu region though the EC has taken confidence from the latest Lok Sabha polling which saw 30 percentage point jump in voter turnout.

"People from Jammu and Kashmir opted for ballots instead of bullets and boycott... People are ready to challenge (the terrorists)," Kumar said adding all candidates will be provided security as assessed by the security forces.

He said the simplification of the voting process for Kashmiri Migrants which had been initiated during the Lok Sabha polls would continue in the Assembly elections too.

On a series of transfers and postings in the union territory on Thursday late evening and Friday morning, Kumar said the government could transfer officials before the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect. However, he said the EC would intervene if any official who has been transferred is interfering in the free and fair conduct of the polls and at no cost, they will not allow disturbing the level-playing field.

Asked why the EC overshot the SC deadline, Kumar said it was not delayed at all and one has to take into consideration that the Amarnath Yatra is getting over only on August 19, the amendment to reserve seats for SCs and STs happening in December 2023 and weather among other things.

The Assembly elections will also pave the way for choosing four MPs for Rajya Sabha. Since February 2021 after the retirement of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway, there were no Rajya Sabha MPs as the Assembly was not in existence.