Final J&K rolls out, 7.7 lakh voters added

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Srinagar, November 25

With the net addition of nearly 7.72 lakh votes, Jammu and Kashmir’s final electoral rolls were published on Friday. The UT’s total electorate has now risen from 76 lakh to 83.6 lakh in the 90 Assembly segments.

“The overall net addition of 7,72,872 electors, which is more than 10 per cent of the draft electors, is a milestone,” said Anil Salgotra, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, in a statement issued here. He said, “The final rolls have a total of 83,59,771 electors, of which 42,91,687 are male, 40,67,900 female and 184 third gender.” Salgotra said the elector population ratio had increased from 0.52 to 0.58 during the special summary revision. The gender ratio has increased from 921 to 948. A total of 613 new polling stations were added, he said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had ordered a revision of voters after a three-member Delimitation Commission unveiled a new electoral map of J&K. On May 5, the commission allotted 47 seats to Kashmir division and 43 to Jammu region, triggering protests from Valley-based parties which alleged the ECI ignored the population factor.

The publishing of the final rolls will the pave way for holding the first Assembly elections in the UT. On November 14, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the security situation in J&K was “satisfactory enough” for holding the elections, but the decision would be taken by the ECI.

In August 2019, the Centre scrapped Article 370 and its corollary Article 35-A which provided constitutional safety to jobs, land and citizenship of the local residents.

It was followed by granting a domicile certificate to every Indian citizen, who has been living in J&K for 15 years. Also, new land laws were enacted to make all Indian citizens eligible to purchase land in the UT. Prior to that, outsiders were not eligible to apply for citizenship or buy land. The domicile certificates and voting rights have been given to thousands of Valmikis and West Pakistan refugees, who have been living for decades in different parts of Jammu.