A two-member delegation of the EC team started its two-day visit to J&K on Thursday to review the preparedness for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, which were first scheduled in December 2014. To ensure that the voters were given a fair chance to elect their representatives, the delegation held a number of meetings with different political parties in Srinagar.
Speaking to The Kashmir Monitor on the sidelines of the meeting, National Conference leader Nasir Aslam Wani, who led a five-member delegation that was headed to meet the EC team, told the party’s expectations. He stressed on bringing tangible changes and equal treatment, a call which the public of J&K wants a functioning government. Wani called on the EC to ensure that the election was convenient without leaning towards any party.
Jammu and Kashmir is the only state which does not have an elected government since June 2018, as the BJP pulled out its support to the PDP-headed coalition government. Subsequently, the President’s rule was imposed in the state, and the state assembly was also dissolved. The situation was further complicated in August 2019 when the Centre revoked Article 370, which granted special status to the region, and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories: J&K, as a union territory because of its own assembly and secondly, Ladakh, which doesn’t have an assembly.
The Apex Court, in the verdict of December 2022, upheld the abrogation of Article 370 but also ordered the EC that the People of J&K must be allowed to exercise their franchise by voting for the 90-member state legislative assembly by the end of September 2024. The court also has asked the Centre to reconvene statehood to J&K at the earliest. Currently, a three-member delimitation commission has redrawn the electoral map in May 2022, with the new assembly seats ranging from 83 to 90. Out of these new seven seats, as many as six were for the Jammu region, predominantly inhabited by Hindus and only one for the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region. Some Opposition parties have accused the BJP of partisan redistricting to favour its vote bank, and these accusations have been described as misleading by the BJP.
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