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Amid delimitation row, EC says poll date after Amarnath Yatra
The poll watchdog said it unanimously decided that “holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir shall be considered later in this year”.
The Election Commission said on Tuesday it will take a call on announcing assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir after the Amarnath Yatra, which begins next month, even as former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti criticised the local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for backing the demand to lift the freeze on delimitation of assembly seats in the state.
The poll watchdog said it unanimously decided that “holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir shall be considered later in this year”. The coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP collapsed in June last year after the Amit Shah-led party said the alliance had become “untenable”.
“The commission will keep on regularly and on real-time basis monitoring the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, taking inputs from all necessary quarters and after the conclusion of Amarnath Yatra will announce the election schedule for the conduct of assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir,” the EC said in an indication that the state polls could be held later this year.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party pulled out of the coalition government in June 2018,
Governor’s rule was imposed in the state, which was followed after six months with the imposition of President’s rule. In March, the Election Commission decided not to hold polls for the assembly and Lok Sabha simultaneously in the state, citing security concerns.
Ahead of the assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit wants the Centre to constitute a commission for the
delimitations of assembly
seats in Jammu and Kashmir and also wants the term of the assembly reduced to five years instead of six, people with knowledge of the developments said. There is a freeze on the delimitation of seats till 2026.
The Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly has 87 seats – 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh.
