With assembly polls on agenda, EC to meet home secretary to review J&K security situation

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) The Election Commission will hold a meeting with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Wednesday to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir where it plans to hold assembly polls, sources said.

The EC had reviewed the poll preparedness in Jammu and Kashmir last week.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had emphasised that the poll authority is committed to holding assembly elections in the Union Territory at the earliest.

No outside or internal forces can derail the electoral process, Kumar had asserted.

After record turnout in the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Kumar had said, “This active participation is a huge positive for assembly elections to be held soon so that the democratic process continues to thrive in the Union Territory.”

Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in 2019.

The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir is usually spread over a month.

Following a delimitation exercise, the number of assembly seats has gone up from 83 to 90, excluding those allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Last December, the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30.

In a fresh indication that assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir are imminent, the EC last month asked the Union Territory administration to transfer out officers posted in their home districts, an exercise it holds ahead of conducting elections.

The commission has been following a consistent policy that officers directly connected with the conduct of elections in a poll-bound state or Union Territory are not posted in their home districts or places where they have served for a considerably long period.

It is usual for the poll panel to issue instructions related to transfers of officers ahead of Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Recently, it had ordered the updation of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir and three other states.

In June, it decided to accept applications seeking allotment of ‘common symbols’ from registered unrecognised parties in the Union Territory.