All political parties keen on joint elections in J&K

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

All political parties are on the same page over holding Assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections to establish a democratic government as early as possible in J&K.

During the all-party meeting convened by Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shailendra Kumar on Friday, representatives of all political parties were unanimous about holding simultaneous elections in the state.

Sources said higher-ups in the election department had made it clear that they were fully prepared to conduct both elections in one go but the final decision in the matter had to be taken at the national level.

“Officers of the election department revealed during the meeting that 17,000 additional EVMs have already been procured as part of the preparations for conducting both elections simultaneously,” said one of the participants who attended the meeting.

“A team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to visit J&K in February to assess the ground situation before taking the decision on holding simultaneous elections,” the participant said. The ECI team is also likely to interact with representatives of all parties.

As reported earlier, all Deputy Commissioners submitted details of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers to the CEO in December last year. The state government had constituted panels at the divisional and district levels to assess the ground situation for holding the simultaneous elections.

The election department has also completed the process of special summary revision of electoral rolls in the state. The final publication of the electoral rolls will be on January 30.

Meanwhile, former minister Raman Bhalla, who represented the Congress in the meeting, said: “We told the CEO that there was uncertainty about the coming Assembly elections, so the confusion should be removed by the election department.”

More EVMs procured  

• Officials of the election department have revealed that 17,000 additional EVMs have already been procured as part of the preparations for both elections simultaneously, said one of the participants who attended the meeting 
• A team of the Election Commission of India is likely to visit J&K in February to assess the ground situation before taking the decision on holding simultaneous elections