Representative Image of polling.
PTI file photo
Srinagar: The Election Commission (EC) has ordered special summary revision of photo electoral rolls of Jammu and Kashmir- third such exercise in last year and a half.
The revision of the rolls has been ordered in all the parliamentary and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory (UT), with January 1, 2024, as the qualifying date.
J&K has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP broke its alliance with PDP, forcing the chief minister of the PDP-BJP alliance Mehbooba Mufti to resign. The EC has come under sharp criticism from J&K’s major political forces over the “unprecedented delay” in restoration of assembly in the UT.
As of now, the assembly elections in J&K seem nowhere in sight, even as the delimitation process was over in May 2022 and two revisions of electoral rolls had been undertaken by the poll body in late 2022 and early 2023.
The UT doesn’t have any representative in the Rajya Sabha from February 15, 2021 against four seats allocated to it in the House.
In August this year, the Union government told the Supreme Court that assembly polls in J&K would be held after panchayat and municipal poll which were due from October to December this year.
However, there is no sign of re-election of grassroots level representatives with these polls likely to be held now after Parliamentary elections in April-May 2024.
In March a delegation of leaders from J&K led by National Conference president Farooq Abdullah met the EC in New Delhi to demand that Assembly elections be announced without delay. However, there has been no response from the EC in this regard so far.