Undated file photo of Jammu and Kashmir voters.
Credit: PTI Photo
The Lok Sabha elections to Jammu and Kashmir will be held in five phases and the counting of the votes will take place on June 4. The results of the elections in the Union territory will also be announced on June 4. The Lok Sabha seats are Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri, Udhampur and Jammu.
Phase 1 voting will be held on April 19 in Udhampur, Phase 2 voting will be held on April 26 in Jammu, Phase 3 voting will be held on May 7 in Anantnag-Rajouri, Phase 4 voting will be held on May 13 in Srinagar voting and finally, voting in Phase 5 will be on May 20.
However, contrary to the wishes of contesting leaders, the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will not be held at the same time as the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.
CEC Rajiv Kumar however has said, “The Election Commission stands committed to holding Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir soon after Lok Sabha elections."
This will be the first Lok Sabha elections since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019 — a move that was later upheld on December 11, 2023 by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court.
Before this, a delimitation exercise (completed in May 2022) was carried out under the J&K Reorganisation Act. It had revised the boundaries of the five parliamentary constituencies, mentioned above, and that of 90 Assembly seats.
The other important dates for each of these Lok Sabha seats are as follows.
For Udhampur, the notification date is March 20 and the last date for filing nominations is March 27. The last date for withdrawal of the candidature will be March 30.
In Jammu, the notification will be issued on March 28 and April 4 will be the last date for filing nominations. April 8 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.
The Anantnag constituency, which includes the sensitive Rajouri and Poonch areas after delimitation, will see the notification be issued on April 12 and April 19 will be the last date for filing nominations. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 22.
For the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in the Kashmir region, as mentioned, polling will be held in the fourth phase. Pulwama and Shopian districts have been added to the Srinagar constituency while two assembly segments, Budgam and Beerwah, have been deleted, post-delimitation. In this segment, the notification will be issued on April 18 and the last date for nomination filing is April 25. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 29.
Finally, in the fifth phase is Baramulla constituency in north Kashmir. The notification will be issued on April 26 while May 3 will be the last date for filing nominations. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be May 6.
The Union Territory has a total of 86.93 lakh voters. This includes 42.58 lakh women and 161 people who identify as the third gender.
Key contests
BJP minister Jitendra Singh has won twice before from Udhampur, once in 2019, against Congress candidate, Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh. In 2014, he had defeated Ghulam Nabi Azad. Singh will be hoping that his winning streak continues in 2024.
The Srinagar seat is currently being held by National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who has ruled from the seat since 2017. He has expressed confidence that he will be voted to power again, proving he is a better I.N.D.I.A. ally than PDP. Meanwhile his son, Omar Abdullah, has justified the party's decision to contest from all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir — namely, Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri. "If Congress is interested in giving a seat to PDP, they better share their seats. They have 3 seats — Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh," he said, refusing to entertain the idea of 'seat-sharing' with PDP in NC's three chosen constituencies.
Anantnag-Rajouri seat covers Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir and most parts of the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region. This region will be BJP's focus in the UT as it looks to improve its tally. The borders of this constituency was considerably redrawn and the most altered by the delimitation exercise. The seat is currently being held by National Conference leader Hasnain Masoodi, who had defeated both PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and Congress's Ghulam Ahmad Mir in the 2019 elections.
Security concerns
Despite a decline in terror incidents in the Valley since last one year, maximum parts of Kashmir and border districts of Rajouri-Poonch in Jammu have been declared as ‘vulnerable areas’ after an exhaustive exercise conducted by the authorities.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Jammu and Kashmir P K Pole said they have asked police to take measures like area domination. They have also asked them to take measures along with security agencies to ensure tight security arrangements for voting in ‘vulnerable areas’. The authorities have decided to involve ASHAs, Anganwari workers and women running Self Help Groups (SHGs) to encourage more participation of females in the election process.
Additional companies of paramilitary forces for polling duties have already started arriving in the UT. To ensure violence free polls and keep the terrorists at bay, the Election Commission (EC) has sanctioned the deployment of 635 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh region.
The EC order reads that out of 635 paramilitary companies assigned to the region, 36 will be retained for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)/Strong Rooms guarding and counting centre arrangements.