CEC Announces Assembly Election Dates For Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir

Assembly elections in Haryana will be held in a single phase on October 1, while Jammu and Kashmir will see polling done in three phases from September 18 to October 1, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Friday.

Voting in Jammu and Kashmir will be held on September 18, September 25, and October 1, according to the announcement. The counting of votes will take place on October 4 for both states.

The ECI has directed the enforcement agencies to be impartial and transparent for the smooth and fair conduction of elections and to ensure a level playing field, Kumar said.

The filing of nominations for the first phase will be on August 27, for the second phase on September 5 and for the third phase on September 12 in Jammu and Kashmir.

A total of 90 assembly constituencies will go to polls, of which 74 are General, nine are ST and seven are SC.

There are a total of 87.09 lakh voters in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 44.46 lakh are male, 42.62 female, 169 are Transgender, 82,590 PwDs, 73943 very senior citizens, 2,660 centenarians, 76,092 service electors, and 3.71 lakh are first-time voters.

Notably, the Supreme Court had in December last year, directed the Centre to conclude the process of elections by September 30, 2024.

Elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir after 10 years with the last elections conducted in 2014. The coalition government of PDP and BJP fell in June 2018 when BJP withdrew support to the then-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

On the other hand, in Haryana, there are a total of 2.01 crore eligible voters, of which 1.06 crore are males, 0.95 crores are females, 4.52 lakhs are first-time voters and 40.95 lakhs are young voters.

The Chief Election Commissioner said, "There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies in Haryana, of which 73 are general, SC-17 and ST-0. There will be a total of 2.01 crore voters in Haryana, of which 1.06 crore are males, 0.95 crore are females, 4.52 lakhs are first-time voters and 40.95 lakhs are young voters. The electoral roll of Haryana will be published on August 27, 2024."

In Haryana, the last date to file the nominations is September 12. The date of scrutiny of the nominations is September 13 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is September 16.

Haryana's current government's term ends on November 3 and elections are taking place to fill the 90-seat state assembly in the state.

The BJP formed a coalition government after elections in 2019 with the JJP who had won 10 seats. The Congress won 31 seats. Earlier this year, the BJP-JJP alliance broke down. Haryana is like to see a four-way contest between the BJP, Congress, JJP and the AAP.

Meanwhile, Rajiv Kumar, while speaking on the Maharashtra elections said that it will be announced later due to security requirements for Jammu and Kashmir.

"Last time, Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections were held together. At that time, J-K was not a factor but this time there are 4 elections this year and 5th election immediately after this, which is to start with J-K, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi. Depending on the requirement of forces, we have decided to conduct 2 elections together. The other factor is that there was heavy rainfall in Maharashtra and there are several festivals lined up too," he said.

A delegation of the chief polling body led by the Chief Election Commissioner reviewed the poll preparedness in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir recently.

Rajiv Kumar said, "We recently visited Jammu and 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...The long queues at the polling booth in J-K during the Lok Sabha elections are proof that people not only want change but also want to raise their voice by becoming a part of that change. This glimpse of hope and democracy shows that the people want to change the picture. They want to write their own destiny. The people of Jammu and Kashmir chose ballot over bullet in Lok Sabha elections."

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