INDIA VOTES 2024: CEC: No adequate forces for simultaneous polls in J&K

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, March 16

Elections to the Legislative Assembly of the J&K can’t be conducted with the general election as enough security forces will not be made available for the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls simultaneously, said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar while addressing a press conference today. The CEC said simultaneous polls were considered, however, “the entire administrative machinery of J&K requested that simultaneous polls are not possible”.

“The EC stands committed. Immediately after this election, we will conduct the Assembly election as soon as possible as we will have availability of forces,” Rajiv Kumar added. The Assembly in J&K was dissolved in November 2018 and scrapping of the Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 converted the erstwhile state into a UT and also reorganised the state into two parts – J&K being one and Ladakh being the other.

The CEC said all political parties asked for polls along with Lok Sabha polls. Explaining the issue of security, he said each of the 90 Assembly constituencies would have 10-12 candidates. That would mean about 1,000 candidates in all. “We will have to provide security to each candidate and need 450 extra companies of security forces”. 450 extra companies would translates into nearly 42,000-45,000 troops.

“So many companies were not possible to be made available,” the CEC said. Addressing questions on delay in conducting Assembly polls in J&K, Rajiv Kumar said everything fell into place only in December 2023. “So our time (to take action) started only in December,” he added.

Explaining the delay, the CEC said the J&K Reorganisation Act was passed in 2019. It mandated for 107 seats, of which 24 were reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), leaving 83 seats. Of these, seven were reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and none for Scheduled Tribes (ST). In 2022, the Delimitation Commission gave its report and it was accepted. This changed the number of seats in the Assembly. Now, there are 114 seats, of which 24 are for PoK, thus leaving 90 seats. The commission added nine seats for the ST, two for migrants and one seat for nomination of person displaced from PoK .

Requirement

For J&K Assembly poll, we will have to provide security to each candidate. We will need 450 more companies of security forces. 450 extra companies translate into nearly 42,000-45,000 troops. —Rajiv Kumar, Chief election commissioner

“For us, this meant the Re-organisation Act and the Delimitation Act was not in sync and there was no occasion for commission to conduct elections till everything was in place, and this happened in December 2023,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in five phases with voting in each of the five parliamentary constituencies of the Union Territory to be held in each phase, according to the poll schedule announced by the Election Commission.

The voting for the Lok Sabha seats of Udhampur, Jammu, Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla will take place on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20.

The Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, spread over Kargil and Leh districts will go to polls in the fifth phase of polls.

(With PTI inputs)

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