CEC says no to holding Assembly polls with LS elections in J&K

Putting all speculations about holding early Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir to rest, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar Saturday announced that holding these polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha wasn’t possible due to “security reasons.”

“During our recent visit, all the political parties in J&K demanded the holding of Assembly and Lok Sabha polls simultaneously and we respect that. (But) the whole administrative machinery was against this idea as it requires huge deployment of security forces personnel,” Kumar said while addressing a presser in New Delhi to announce Lok Sabha election schedule. The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning from April 19 and the results will be announced on June 4.

Elaborating further, he said, “On an average 10 to 12 candidates will be contesting for one assembly seat and providing atleast two sections and for 90 constituencies it means almost 1000 contesting candidates. Due to security situation in J&K, every candidate needs to be given at least two sections of force which means additional requirement of 450-500 companies.”

"It was not possible at this time," the CEC added.

“Providing additional security during general elections in the country was not possible. But we stand committed to hold assembly polls in J&K as soon as Lok Sabha elections are over,” he said.

Defending the Commission was in no way responsible for delay in holding Assembly polls in J&K, the CEC said, “The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was amended in December 2023 after a delimitation exercise and the clock had started ticking for the EC since then.”

Immediately after the Commission’s announcement, National Conference leader and former chief minister of J&K Omar Abdullah in a sarcastic post on micro-blogging site X wrote: “So much for “One Nation One Election”. The EC is unable to conduct assembly polls in J&K with the general election even when they acknowledge that elections are due #GeneralElection2024.”

During the recent discussions with the visiting ECI team to J&K, political parties had unequivocally sought simultaneous polls.

Many are learnt to have said that if the Centre is looking at a ‘One Nation, One Election’ plan, it should make a start with J&K which has been without an elected government since the PDP-BJP coalition collapsed in June 2018.

However, sources said, both the administrative and security establishment had conveyed to the visiting ECI team that conducting simultaneous poll will be hugely challenging.

Lok Sabha elections in the five parliamentary constituencies of the UT will be held in five phases between April 19 and May 20.

Explaining the delay so far, Kumar said, "The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed in 2019. There was a provision for 107 seats, 24 of which were in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Then the delimitation commission came and there was a change in the seats.... The reorganisation Act and delimitation were not in sync. That happened in December 2023. So our meter started running from December 2023."

He allayed fears, saying, "But we stand committed that as soon as these (Lok sabha) elections are over, we will hold (Assembly) elections there," he asserted.