The Election Commission of India (EC) will meet political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to discuss the upcoming Assembly polls in the Union Territory.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir, issued letters on Tuesday inviting various political parties for the meeting. The political parties have been given specific time slots for their meetings with the EC.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu, will visit Jammu and Kashmir from August 8 to 10 to review poll preparedness, ahead of the Supreme Court’s September 30 deadline for holding elections in the Union Territory.
In March, Kumar, the sole member of the EC at the time, assured political parties and the public that elections would be held soon. The two vacant election commissioner posts were filled just before the Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 16. Kumar noted that the high voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections was a positive sign for the forthcoming Assembly elections.
The EC will review the situation with the Chief Electoral Officer, central forces coordinator, election officers, police superintendents, the Chief Secretary, and the Director General of Police. On August 10, the commission will conduct a review meeting with enforcement agencies in Jammu and hold a press conference to brief the media on the review process.
These elections will be the first in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganization of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories in 2019. The number of Assembly seats has increased from 83 to 90 following a delimitation exercise, excluding seats allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
