Elections: Elections have begun in Jammu-Kashmir and Haryana, this will be the first election in the valley after the removal of Article 370

Posted on 17th Aug 2024 by rohit kumar

The much-awaited elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly have finally been announced, which will be held in three phases. This will be the first assembly election in the state after the removal of Article 370. Along with this, the Election Commission has also announced the assembly elections of Haryana, which will be held in just one phase. Voting for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections will be held on 18, 25 September, and 1 October, while voting for the Haryana Assembly will be held on 1 October. The results of both the states will be declared on 4 October.

 

Nominations will start from August 20

The commission recently visited both the states and checked the election preparations. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana assembly elections on Friday in the presence of Associate Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhvir Singh Sandhu. According to the Chief Election Commissioner, nominations for the 24 assembly seats of the first phase of Jammu and Kashmir will start from August 20.

 

Tight security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir

 

Nominations for the 26 assembly seats of the second phase will start from August 29 and nominations for the 40 assembly seats of the third phase will start from September 5. Nominations for all 90 assembly seats of Haryana will start from September 5. The commission has made tight security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir, which is sensitive from the security point of view. It also informed that security will be provided to all the officials of political parties including the candidates during the elections.

 

The commission said that the political parties had made this demand during the visit to the state. From the political point of view, the assembly elections of both these states are very important. Especially in Jammu and Kashmir, the assembly elections are going to be held for the first time after 2014. At present, there is President's rule in the state.

 

Fresh delimitation is also done

 

Earlier, the commission had also done fresh delimitation of assembly seats in the state. Therefore, the assembly seats in the state have increased to 90. Before the reorganization of the state, there were a total of 87 assembly seats, but due to the separation of Ladakh-Kargil, the total assembly seats here were reduced to 83. Seven new assembly seats were created here in the delimitation.

 

Out of the total 90 assembly seats in the state, 74 seats are general, while nine seats are reserved for SC and seven for ST. Not only this, now the term of the assembly in the state will be five years, which was earlier six years. At the same time, the BJP has been in power in Haryana for the last ten years. In such a situation, while regaining power in the state is a big challenge for it, in the changed equation, parties like Congress and AAP are also struggling to be seen strongly in the field.

 

BJP did not field its candidates in the valley in the Lok Sabha elections. After the enthusiasm shown by the voters in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent Lok Sabha elections and the record of decades was broken, it is expected that the assembly elections will be interesting. In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP did not field its candidates in the valley, so it will be interesting to see what strategy the BJP adopts in the assembly elections.

 

Elections will be held later in Maharashtra

 

Indicating that the Maharashtra assembly elections will be held after Diwali, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the need for additional security forces in Jammu and Kashmir is also a reason for this. He also said, there has been heavy rainfall in Maharashtra and BLOs have to complete their work. There are also many festivals, which have to be kept in mind. Ganesh Utsav, Pitru Paksha, Navratri, Diwali, keeping all these in mind, we thought that we could handle only two elections simultaneously.

 

CEC said, three gentlemen are back

 

At the beginning of the press conference organized to announce the elections, Rajiv Kumar introduced fellow election commissioners and said in a light-hearted manner, three gentlemen are back. His statement is being considered a response to a popular meme circulated during the Lok Sabha elections in which all three were called missing gentlemen amid alleged violation of the model code of conduct.

 

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections at a Glance

 

Voting - in three phases - on 18, 25 September and 1 October.

 

Counting - on 4 October

 

Total assembly seats in the state - 90 (General - 74, ST-09 and SC-07)

 

Total voters - 87.09 lakh (as of 25 July 2024)

 

Final publication of voter list - 20 August

 

Male voters - 44.46 lakh, female voters - 42.62 lakh.

 

First-time voters - 3,71 lakh (18-19 years age group)

 

Total young voters - 20.70 lakh (20 to 29 years age group)

 

Voters aged 100 years or above - 2,66085

 

Voters aged 10 years or above - 73,943 Total polling stations - 11,838, which are at 9169 places. Women-operated polling stations- 90

Model polling stations- 360

Average number of voters at polling stations- 735

Haryana assembly elections at a glance

 

Voting- in one phase- October 1

Counting of votes- October 4

Total assembly seats in the state- 90 (general- 73 and SC-17)

Total voters- 2.01 crore (as of August 2)

Male voters- 1.06 crore and female voters- 95 lakh

Young voters- 40.95 lakh (age group of 20 to 29 years)

First-time voters- 4.52 lakh (age group of 18-19 years)

Publication of final voter list- August 27

Voters aged 100 years and above- 10,32185

Voters aged 100 years and above- 2.55 lakh

Total polling stations- 20,629

Of these, 7,132 are in urban areas and 13,497 in rural areas. Average number of voters at polling station- 977

 

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