J&K Assembly Poll: Home Ministry assures adequate security to Election Commission

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, August 14

The Home Ministry assured to provide adequate security to the Election Commission (EC) to conduct Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Ministry was ready to provide sufficient number of security personnel as per the assessment of the EC, sources said.

These aspects were discussed during a meeting of Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday on the security scenario in the UT.

In the meeting, deployment of troops was also discussed in detail in wake of the recent terror attacks on armed forces, especially in the Jammu sector.

The sources, aware of the development, described the meeting as an exercise to assess the requirement of forces. The Home Ministry has promised to provide forces to the EC.

A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, had directed the EC to conduct Assembly elections in J&K by September 30.

The last Assembly elections in J&K in 2014, when Ladakh was its part, were held in five phases. This time too the number of phases could be the same. The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir is usually spread over a month.

It was not yet clear whether polls in J&K will be held along with other states where Assembly elections are due or separately. Whenever Assembly elections are held in J&K, they will be the first since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state was divided into two UTs in 2019.