The Election Commission of India (ECI) will visit Jammu and Kashmir from August 8 to 10 to review the preparations for the upcoming assembly elections in the union territory. The visit comes as Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government since June 2018, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended its alliance with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
The last Assembly election in J&K was held in 2015.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, will lead the review. During their visit to Srinagar, they will engage with political parties and meet with the chief electoral officer, the union territory’s police nodal officer, and the central forces coordinator to assess election readiness.
The commissioners will also hold discussions with the chief secretary, police chief, district election officers, and superintendents of police from each district. On August 10, the ECI officials will travel to Jammu to evaluate coordination with enforcement agencies, followed by a press conference to update the media on election preparations.
Earlier in March, the Chief Election Commissioner visited Jammu and Kashmir before the Lok Sabha elections and assured political parties and the public that assembly elections would be conducted soon.
The Supreme Court has directed the Central government to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30, 2024, and to restore statehood at the earliest. The ECI has also requested the Jammu and Kashmir administration to reassign officials stationed in their home districts and those involved in the election process who will complete a three-year term before the end of September.
Since June 2018, after the BJP-PDP alliance collapsed and Mehbooba Mufti resigned as chief minister, Jammu and Kashmir has been under Governor’s rule. The legislative assembly was dissolved in November 2018. In August 2019, the Modi government abrogated Article 370, ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating it into two union territories.
