New Delhi, Aug 16 :
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the schedule for the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana. Addressing a press conference here, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said the elections in the erstwhile state of J&K will be held in three phases.
The polling for the first phase will be held on September 18. The polling for the second phase will be held on September 25 and the voting for the third phase will be held on October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4.
He also said that Haryana would go to polls on October 1 and the counting would be held on October 4.
“We took stock of the situation for the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana. All of them(stakeholders) wanted to have polls as early as possible,” the CEC said.
“Everybody wanted to participate and prove a point. This is a triumph of ballots over the bullets. The (Kashmir) valley has rejected violence,” the CEC asserted, referring to the long queues in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir. “There would be more voting and we also hope that there will be more women voters this time. The (election) campaign can be held without fear,” he added.
“We want to focus on youth as ambassadors of our elections. On August 19, the Amarnath Yatra will get over and on August 20, the electoral roll will be published,” the CEC added.
“There are 90 seats in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 74 are in the general category while 7 and 9 are reserved for
Three-Phase Jammu and
SC and ST respectively,” he added. According to CEC, there will be 11, 838 polling stations in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Haryana, there are 90 Assembly seats and the electoral roll will be finalised and published on August 27. “There are 20,629 polling stations in Haryana – of which 7,132 polling stations in urban areas and 13,497 in rural areas,” he said.
The Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18, the Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar announced on Friday.
Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Rajiv Kumar said that the assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases.
The elections of first phase will be held on September 18, second phase will be held on September 25 and third phase will be held on October 1. The counting of the votes will be held on October 4.
“Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases, with voting on September 18th, September 25th, and October 1st. Counting of votes on October 4,” Kumar said.
The dates to file the nominations for the first phase will be on August 27, nominations for the second phase will be on September 5, and September 12 is the last day to file nominations for the third phase.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, “During Lok Sabha elections in J-K, people were there to participate in the elections. The long queues and the shine on their faces were a testament to this…There was thriving political participation in the entire election…We want the layers of democracy to be strengthened in J&K”
On August 14, the Election Commission held a meeting with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies, of which 74 are General, nine are ST and seven are SC.
In Jammu and Kashmir, there are 87.09 lakh total electors. Of which 44.46 lakh are male, 42.62 female, 169 are Transgender, 82,590 PwDs, 73943 very senior citizens, 2660 centenarians, 76092 service electors, and 3.71 lakh are first-time voters.
Meanwhile, directions were given to Enforcement Agencies, DMs, and SPs to ensure free, fair, and inducement-free elections.
In December of last year, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to conclude the election process by September 30, 2024.
Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of ten years as the last assembly election was held in 2014.
The PDP-BJP coalition government fell in June 2018 when the latter withdrew support to the then-Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti.
