ECI to announce schedule for election to legislative assemblies today
ECI did not specify whether the announcement would be J&K-specific days after a delegation of the poll body reviewed preparedness for the first assembly polls there since 2014
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday said that it will announce the schedule for election to legislative assemblies at a press conference at 3 pm days after a delegation of the poll body met representatives of political parties during a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to review the preparedness for the first assembly polls in the Union Territory (UT) since 2014. A notification of the ECI did not specify whether the announcement would be J&K-specific. Polls are also due in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand this year.
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu held separate deliberations with leaders across party lines this month as it began the process of deciding the schedule for polls in the UT. Representatives of different parties urged the poll body to hold the elections as soon as possible and ensure a level playing field.
The UT has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led coalition government. The region was under the governor’s rule before the Union government in August 2019 revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave semi-autonomous status to J&K. The region was also bifurcated into two UTs— J&K with an assembly and Ladakh without one.
In December last year, the Supreme Court upheld the revocation of Article 370 and directed the ECI to conduct polls for the 90-member J&K legislative assembly by September 30, 2024. The court asked the Union government to restore statehood to the region “as soon as possible”.
In May 2022, a three-member delimitation commission redrew the electoral map of J&K, earmarking 43 seats to the Hindu-majority Jammu region and 47 to Muslim-majority Kashmir. Out of the seven new seats, six were allotted to Jammu and one to Kashmir. The regional parties rejected the panel’s decision calling it an attempt to consolidate BJP’s vote bank.