Over 25L voters likely to be added in summary revision

Jammu, August 17

Hirdesh Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer of J&K, has said that 20 to 25 lakh new voters, including those from outside, are likely to enrol during the summary revision in the union territory.

He said at a press conference in Jammu that the summary revision had not taken place in J&K since 2019 due to which those who were below 18 years of age were not in the voter list. He expected that the new voters in J&K could go up by 20-25 lakh after the summary revision.

Kumar said, “Before the abrogation of Article 370, there were many people who could not vote but now even they can cast their vote in the Assembly elections.”

According to the summary revision schedule, the Integrated Draft Electoral Roll would be published by all electoral registration officers on September 15. The period between September 15 and October 25 has been earmarked for filing claims and objections and all disposals in this regard would be completed by November 10.

The Chief Electoral Officer reiterated that any person attaining the age of 18 years on or before October 1, 2022, and is otherwise qualified to be enrolled as an elector in the electoral roll could apply for registration during this special summary revision.

He said, “Pre-revision activities as well as post-delimitation follow-up work is going on in the UT, wherein the existing electoral roll is being mapped into the newly delimited Assembly constituencies as per the Delimitation Commission’s final order made applicable by the Union Law Ministry with effect from May 20.”

Meanwhile, Kashmir-based leaders took potshots at the BJP regarding the development. Former Chief Minister and leader of National Conference Omar Abdullah tweeted, “Is the BJP so insecure about support from genuine voters of J&K that it needs to import temporary voters to win seats? None of these things will help the BJP when the people of J&K are given a chance to exercise their franchise.”