New Delhi:

Sources told New Delhi TV that the Election Commission of India will visit Jammu and Kashmir from Monday to Wednesday to assess when voting can be held in the Union Territory and the date for the Lok Sabha elections is likely to be announced immediately thereafter. The announcement will likely come on Thursday or Friday.

The commission’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir comes after the Supreme Court directed it to hold assembly elections in the Union Territory (UT) by September. The Center then asked the panel to assess whether the assembly elections in the UT can be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.

“Once the assessment is completed and the visit ends on Wednesday, the committee is likely to announce the date for the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday or Friday,” a source said.

The model code of conduct will come into effect as soon as the elections are announced and the parties have made commitments and launched projects on a war footing.

As far as the Jammu and Kashmir polls are concerned, security agencies gave the commission a complete briefing and the entire team, including Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel, will visit the Union Territory.

The last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 2014 and the state was divided in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370, which gave Jammu and Kashmir special status. Thereafter, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were established.

In December last year, the Supreme Court, holding hearings on a series of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, directed the Election Commission to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30. Upholding the Union government’s decision to abrogate Article 370, the court directed it to take steps to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest.

No elected government since 2018

In the 2014 parliamentary elections, Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party formed a coalition government. The alliance collapsed in 2018 after the BJP withdrew its support, and Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government since then.

The People’s Democratic Party is now part of the Indian alliance, but after the Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) said it would contest all three seats in Kashmir on its own and leave two seats in Jammu to the Congress , some rumors emerged.

Ms Mufti termed the National Council’s decision as “disappointing” and accused the National Council of dismissing the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) as a “joke”. The PAGD is an alliance of parties, including the National Council and the People’s Democratic Party, that have come together to seek restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.