Srinagar:

The Election Commission has been unable to conduct assembly polls in the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir citing security reasons. The poll panel effectively repeated what it said when the 2019 election was announced.

The last assembly elections in J&K were held in 2014. The region has been without an elected government for nearly six years.

Announcing the polling schedule for general and assembly elections in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the assembly elections in J&K will be held soon, but It was not held in conjunction with the parliamentary elections for security reasons.

Top poll officials said the entire J&K government has refused to hold simultaneous polls due to security concerns. However, he said he was committed to holding state elections as soon as possible after the parliamentary elections are over and adequate security forces are in place.

Five years ago, then Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had cited the same reason for not holding assembly polls in the April and May 2019 assembly elections.

Months later, instead of holding elections, the Center revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories in August 2019.

The former state has since undergone a contentious delimitation exercise that redrawn the boundaries of 90 parliamentary seats. There were accusations of gerrymandering, which effectively changed the electoral map of J&K.

Subsequently, amendments to the J&K Reorganization Bill empowered the J&K Lieutenant Governor to nominate five members of the J&K Assembly, which could further change the mandate of the Assembly as the nominated members would also have voting rights.

Citing the amendments to the J&K Reorganization Act in December last year, Mr. Kumar said his election work had only begun three months ago when the Reorganization Act was amended.

“The meter for our conduct of elections starts in December 2023,” Mr Kumar said.

A year ago, in March 2023, Mr. Kumar had said that there was a “vacuum” in Jammu and Kashmir that needed to be filled. The Central Election Commission also said that the new revision of the electoral roll in Jammu and Kashmir will not prevent the holding of elections.