New Delhi: Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 while Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
Voting will take place for 90 seats in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18, September 25 and October 1, the EC said.
Votes will be counted on October 4 for both the assemblies, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference.
The last assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in November-December 2014 and these will be the first assembly elections in the erstwhile state since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The first phase will go to polls on September 18, second phase on September 25 and third phase on October 1. The union territory has 87.09 lakh voters, out of which 3.71 lakh being first-timers.
Also, the 90-member Haryana Assembly will vote on October 1. The EC said total electors in the state are 2.01 crore, including 10,321 centenarians.
The terms of the legislative assemblies of Haryana will end on November 3. The Supreme Court had directed the poll panel also plans to hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30.
Recently, the EC visited Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana to oversee poll preparedness. “We recently visited Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana to take stock of the election preparation in these places. A great enthusiasm was seen among the people. They wanted to participate in the election process. People want elections to be conducted there as early as possible,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said.
On August 9, the Chief Election Commissioner said the poll panel is committed to conducting polls in Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest. He said the commission will not let internal and external forces derail polls.
Assembly polls have not been held in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014. The polls were due to be held in early 2019 following the dissolution of the legislative body of the erstwhile state in 2018.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Sheikh Bashir Ahmad told ANI, “We hope that elections will be announced (in J&K). People of J&K have been waiting for five years so that they elect their representatives and send them to Assembly. As of now, a bureaucratic has kept the people suppressed. They are waiting for elections so that people can make their own decisions. If Parliament elections can be held, state elections can be held as well.”
