Srinagar:

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar arrived here on Monday on a three-day visit to review preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

General elections are likely to be held in April-May.

Officials said the Election Commission team, consisting of Kumar and nine other Election Commission officials, has no formal event scheduled for Monday.

The panel will hold detailed meetings with civil administration and police officials on Tuesday as part of the review process, they added.

European Commission officials also plan to meet with party representatives during the visit.

Officials said they would hold a similar interaction in Jammu on Wednesday, adding that they were likely to interact with the media there as well.

There is growing demand from the Jammu and Kashmir political circles that the Election Commission should hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir either simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls or immediately after the general elections.

Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad made the demand in the past two weeks.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Atal Dulu on Saturday held a meeting with the Civil Administration and Police Administration to apprise them of the steps to be taken for smooth conduct of Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territory.

The Chief Secretary insisted that the government’s goal was to ensure free and fair elections with large-scale public participation.

Dulu urged the zonal and district governments to take all necessary measures to ensure that the people do not face any difficulty in exercising their democratic rights.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)