Haryana to vote on October 1; Jammu and Kashmir election in 3 phases beginning September 18

Aditi Tandon/Animesh Singh

New Delhi, August 16

Jammu and Kashmir will vote after a decade in a three phase election to be held between September 18 and October 1 while Haryana will vote on October 1 in a single phase.

Counting for both will be held on October 4.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the poll schedules for J&K and Haryana on Friday and said Jammu and Kashmir will vote in a short election with three phases to be held on September 18, 25 and October 1.

For Jammu and Kashmir the CEC said the Election Commission will ensure high participation by voters and positively view the request of all political parties to award ample security to candidates alike."Sufficient security will be available to deal with any eventuality," Kumar said on Friday.

He said the EC was committed to strengthening the roots of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that: "The idea is to have a stronger edifice on a strong foundation of democracy."

In Lok Sabha elections, "J&K chose ballots over bullets and bandhs," Kumar said, adding that ample security forces will be available for the J&K polls with Amarnath Yatra to end on September 19.

Jammu and Kashmir has 90 segments with 87.09 lakh voters to take part in the elections. Of these 44.46 lakh are males."Electoral rolls for J&K will be published on August 20," said Kumar.

J&K has 82,590 Persons with Disabilities; 2660 centenarians and 168 third gender voters. J&K will have 11,838 booths at 9,169 locations and average voters per polling station will be 735.

Floating polling stations will also be deployed, he said.

The changed scenario after the Lok Sabha election inspired us to boldly declare that we will conduct the J&K elections early.

The Lok Sabha polls saw long queues and shining faces, which were a testament to the urge of people to participate in democracy. "We want layers of democracy to be strengthened in Jammu and Kashmir. The rise in the percentage of voters in J&K is one aspect. Participation in polls is another. The number of rallies, processions is another," said Kumar.

The entire poll process will be over by October 6.

In 2019, Haryana polls were held on October 21.

Haryana's 2.01 crore voters include 1.5 lakh persons with disabilities, 10, 321 centenarians, 2.55 lakh voters above 85 years and 459 third gender people.

The last J&K assembly poll was held in 2014 and the government fell in 2018. In August 2019, the JK Reorganization Act divided J&K state into UTs of J&K and Ladakh.

The Supreme Court in December 2023 while upholding the constitutionality of abrogation of Article 370 had asked the EC to hold J&K polls by September 30.

POLL SCHEDULES

HARYANA:

Notification for Haryana poll will be issued on September 5. The last date for making nominations for Haryana is September 12. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on September 13 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is September 16. Date of poll is October 1, and date of counting is October 4.

JK

First phase: Notification on August 20, last date of nominations Aug 27, last date of withdrawal Aug 30; poll September 18

Second phase: Notification on Aug 29; last date of nominations Sept 5; scrutiny Sept 6; last date of withdrawal Sept 9; polling Sept 25

Third phase: Notification Sept 5; last date for nominations Sept 12; last date for withdrawal of candidature Sept 17; polling Oct 1