The Election Commission of India has asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to transfer out officers posted in their home districts, a routine exercise it holds before conducting elections.
The order assumes significance as it indicates that assembly polls in the Union Territory are imminent. The poll panel has issued similar directions to the chief secretaries of Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand, the three states going to assembly polls later this year.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under Central rule since June 19, 2018, following the collapse of a coalition government headed by the People’s Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti after the pullout of its alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP). Manoj Sinha is the present Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of the UT.
Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have repeatedly said that assembly polls will be held in the UT. PM Modi has said the statehood status of J-K will also be restored.
Speaking in Lok Sabha during the debate on Budget 2024, National Conference leader and Srinagar Member of Parliament (MP), Aga Ruhullah Mehdi accused the Union government of denying people of Jammu and Kashmir their democratic rights.
‘I am not here to beg for assembly polls. SC directed the Election Commission to establish a democratic government until September. The process for conducting elections has not begun,’ Mehdi said in the Lok Sabha.
Last year, during a hearing on the Article 370 abrogation case, the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly elections in the UT by September 30, 2024.
First Assembly Election Post Article 370 Abrogation
Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, it will be the first assembly polls since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in August 2019.
Following a delimitation exercise, the number of assembly seats in the UT has gone up from 83 to 90, excluding those allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir usually lasts over a month.
The poll panel 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.
Routine Exercise
In the July 31 directive, the Election Commission of India said the terms of the existing legislative assemblies of Haryana, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra were up to November 3, 2024, January 5, 2025, and November 26, 2024, respectively, and elections in these states were due in 2024.
“Further, the election to the legislative assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is also due in the near future,” reads the EC letter.
The poll panel usually issues instructions related to officer transfers ahead of the Lok Sabha and assembly polls. Recently, it ordered the updation of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir and the three states.
In June, the poll panel started to accept applications seeking allotment of ‘common symbols’ from registered unrecognised parties in the Union Territory.
