ECI sets ball rolling for J&K polls, orders electoral rolls' revision

The Election Commission is looking at announcing the assembly elections schedule for Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) soon after the conclusion of the Amarnath Yatra on August 19, ET has learnt.

The idea is to ensure a possible start of the poll calendar well ahead of the September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court, sources said. The Amarnath Yatra begins on June 29 and ends on August 19.

The full Election Commission of India (ECI) - chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Sukhbir S Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar - is expected to visit J&K in July or early August for a ground review of electoral preparedness. The ECI has already begun moving the poll process. On Friday, the poll panel announced that it was set to conduct the second special summary revision (SSR) for updation of electoral rolls in the states of Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and UT of Jammu & Kashmir on July 1.

The final electoral rolls will be published on August 20, it said. This will leave adequate time for the ECI to schedule the polls any time after the Amarnath Yatra. A September-October election is not unusual in J&K. A look at past poll calendars shows that half of the 12 assembly elections in J&K since independence were held in the September-October or November-December window. In fact, since 1996, all assembly polls in J&K have been held in the September- early December window, before the snows block access to upper reaches.

Security deployment - the biggest imperative for a J&K poll - is also falling into place, people aware of the developments said.

The Centre has already announced deployment of full spectrum counter-terror operations in J&K in the aftermath of the Reasi attack on pilgrims and recent encounters with terrorists. Deployment of security forces is also being ramped up with more companies joining in ahead of the Amarnath Yatra.

ET gathers that the deployment levels will be maintained after the yatra to facilitate peaceful conduct of assembly elections and to ensure the high voter turnout trend seen in the recent parliamentary polls there. J&K has been under the President's rule since December 19, 2018. The last assembly election in the erstwhile state was held in November 2014. The 2024 assembly elections will be the first after abrogation of Article 370 and after delimitation of constituencies in J&K - the latter was done after a gap of 27 years.