The Election Commission of India (ECI) met with top officials in Srinagar today to discuss the upcoming J&K Assembly elections. The Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, and Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu convened at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC).
They met with Chief Secretary Atul Dulloo and Director General of Police R.R. Swain. The meeting also included various administrative secretaries from the union territory. The ECI team sought feedback from senior civil and police officers on the preparedness for the J&K Assembly elections.
The ECI team arrived in Srinagar on Thursday. Their first engagement was with representatives from national and regional political parties. These parties urged the Commission to hold the Assembly elections in J&K without further delay.
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Later, the ECI team met with deputy commissioners and senior superintendents of police (SSPs) from different districts to gather their input on the election process. In the evening, they met with the Chief Electoral Officer of J&K, P.K. Pole, and the chief nodal officer for the union territory.
The ECI team is scheduled to travel to Jammu later today to continue discussions with various stakeholders. They will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. in Jammu before concluding their two-day visit to J&K.
J&K has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP withdrew from the PDP-BJP coalition led by Mehbooba Mufti. The state was placed under Lt. Governor’s rule, and the Assembly was dissolved. On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated, dividing the state into two union territories: J&K and Ladakh. The Supreme Court has mandated that Assembly elections be held by September 30, 2024.