SRINAGAR A crucial meeting of election commission of India is taking place on Tuesday regarding conduct of the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. The state administration favours the elections in November and not during the summer.
The state administration cited Ramazan, tourist season, and Bakerwal migration as reasons for advancing the polls to November this year, sources said.
The ECI held a meeting on Friday last, days after the three special observers appointed by it submitted their report on the possibility of holding Assembly polls in the state.
A “full commission” comprising the chief election commissioner and two fellow commissioners are scheduled to meet in New Delhi on Tuesday (April 30) to discuss the possible dates of the Assembly polls.
The state chief electoral officer had met the deputy election commissioner concerned on Thursday, ahead of Friday’s meet.
On March 10, when the EC had announced the schedule for the ongoing Lok Sabha election, it had said the polls to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will not be held simultaneously. It had cited the law-and-order situation in the state for delaying the Assembly polls.
Since the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has been dissolved, the EC is bound to hold fresh polls there within a six-month period, which will end in May.
The Centre and the state administration, being managed by the Centre-appointed governor, were against holding the two elections together.
However, all political parties in the state spoke in favour of simultaneous polls during a meeting with the EC.
The six-year term of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was to end on March 16, 2021, but it got dissolved after the ruling coalition between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell apart.
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