- Friday, December 27, 2024
Voting will take place for 90 seats in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18, September 25 and October 1
By: Shajil Kumar
ASSEMBLY elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir from September 18 in three phases, the Election Commission (EC) said on Friday.
This will be the first state polls there after New Delhi scrapped the region’s special autonomy.
Voting will take place for 90 seats in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18, September 25 and October 1, the EC said.
Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, and the counting for both the states will be held on October 4.
Troubled region
Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighbouring Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 at independence from colonial rule by Britain.
The larger Kashmir region is divided between India, Pakistan and China.
The part ruled by India enjoyed a special status that was revoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 and the state was split into two federally-administered territories.
The decision to hold fresh elections follows a December order by India’s Supreme Court that rejected petitions challenging the revocation of Kashmir’s special status and set a deadline of September 30 for holding provincial polls.
Nearly 9 million people are registered to vote for the 90-member legislative assembly, the election panel said.
Elections in Kashmir have been targeted by militants in the past and also witnessed low voter turnout.
However, the territory recorded its highest turnout of 58.46 per cent in 35 years in parliamentary elections held in April and May this year.
The Modi government and election officials said this reflected the faith of Kashmir’s voters in the democratic process.
Haryana: BJP faces resurgent Congress
The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls to be held on October 1 but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.
To offset the Congress challenge, the BJP made a bold move by replacing Manohar Lal Khattar with its then state unit president Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Khattar got elected to the Lok Sabha from Karnal and was made a Union minister while Saini won the Karnal Assembly bypoll that was held along with the general elections.
Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls.
The BJP came to power in Haryana on its own for the first time in 2014. Following the 2019 Assembly polls, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala joined hands with the BJP to form a government in the state after the saffron party failed to get a clear majority in the House.
However, the four-and-a-half-year-old alliance ended in March 2024, after Saini replaced Khattar as chief minister.
While the Congress is the main challenger to the BJP in the Assembly polls, the JJP, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Aam Aadmi Party are set to field their candidates for the election, making it a multi-cornered contest.
The Aam Aadmi Party has held a series of rallies in the state and announced five “Kejriwal’s guarantees” last month, promising free electricity, free medical treatment, free education, employment for youngsters, and ₹1,000 per month for every woman in the state to woo the voters. (Agencies)
