The election machinery is gearing up for the conduct of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir as the First-Level Checking (FLC) of EVMs and VVPATs will be held at a workshop later this month, quoting officials Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
They said deputy commissioners of all ten districts of the Valley and a team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will participate in the workshop.
“The preparations for the assembly elections are underway. However, the final dates for the conduct of the polls will be decided by the ECI,” an official said.
J-K has been without an assembly since November 2018 when the then the legislative assembly was dissolved by then governor Satya Pal Malik after the PDP-BJP coalition government fell apart earlier that year.
The Centre as well as the Lieutenant Governor administration here have been saying that the assembly elections in J-K would be conducted after the process of delimitation and electoral revision is completed.
The delimitation of constituencies was completed earlier this year and the election commission began the process of electoral rolls revision in J-K last month — an exercise taking place after a gap of three years and for the first time since the abrogation of J-K’s limited autonomy in August 2019.
The officials said, as per the report, there are indications that polls could be held in the UT after the electoral roll revision is completed.
They said the preparations for the polls were in full swing.
“The delimitation has been completed. The electoral rolls revision is on and is likely to be completed soon. The EC has set 31 October as the final date for publication of the revised electoral rolls,” the official said.
The process of rationalisation of polling stations was also going on and is likely to be completed by the end of this month.
As per the report by PTI, some of the deputy commissioners who are designated as district election officers have released list of draft polling stations after rationalisation, while others are in the process of doing so, the official said.
The rationalisation of polling stations was necessitated because of the creation of seven new assembly constituencies as well as the change in boundaries of many constituencies following fresh delimitation.
The officials said the district election officers have been holding meetings with the representatives of political parties in every district.
Discussions have taken place with these representatives of political parties on the post-delimitation exercises, including rationalisation of polling stations, list of draft polling stations after formation of new constituencies, addition and deletion of voters in the list, they said.
After this process is completed, the officials said, the booth-level officers (BLOs) would be trained and sensitised regarding the post-delimitation exercise.
Meanwhile, a workshop on first-level checking (FLC) of EVMs and VVPATs will be held at SKICC on 27 July, in which the district election officers and deputy district election officers of all the 10 districts of the valley will be participating.
A team of officers from the Election Commission of India, including Director EVMs, S Sunder Rajan, Secretary Madhusudan Gupta and Under Secretary 0 P Sahani, besides, representatives from Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, including Deputy General Manager P C Mandal, Technical Officer C V Dinesh Datta and Officer C Venkanna, are also participating in the workshop, the officials said.
The preparations for the polls also come amid statements by the Centre as well as the J-K administration on the conduct of the polls.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on 17 June said there is a possibility of holding the polls by this year-end.
Earlier this month, J-K LG Manoj Sinha said the elections will surely take place after the completion of the electoral roll revision. (PTI)
