Jammu and Kashmir revision of electoral rolls completed second time in a year

As second special summary revision of photo electoral rolls within a year in Jammu and Kashmir culminated, the voter count in the union territory (UT) has reached close to 85 lakh.

On March 24, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had ordered the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jammu & Kashmir to hold a special summary revision of electoral rolls with reference to April 1, 2023, as the qualifying date.

J&K CEO, PK Pole confirmed that the final electoral rolls for the UT have been published. While the CEO office is yet to release the figures officially, the voter count in J&K has reached close to 85 lakh, officials said.

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Prior to the latest revision, the UT’s voter count stood at 83.59 lakh which was based on a special summary revision of last year released on November 26, 2022. Out of them, 42,91,687 were male, 40,67,900 females and 184 Third Gender.

An official said all 20 deputy commissioners of the UT have submitted their data based on special summary revision to the CEO office.
Jammu and Kashmir has been without an Assembly since June 2018 when the PDP-BJP alliance fell apart, after which the erstwhile state was brought under central rule. This is the third longest spell of bureaucratic rule in any state or UT with a legislature in independent India’s history.

In March a delegation of leaders from J&K led by National Conference president Farooq Abdullah met the ECI to demand that Assembly elections be announced without delay. However, there has been no response from the ECI in this regard so far.

Last year’s special summary revision of electoral rolls was held for the first time in J&K after abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 and was considered as a precursor to long-awaited Assembly elections in the UT. However, despite completing the second revision of electoral rolls, the assembly election seems to be nowhere in sight.