SRINAGAR: Talking to reporters at New Delhi, Kumar said, ‘We will give the people an opportunity to form their Government and choose their representatives as per their choice as soon as possible’.
Chief Election Commissioner’s latest assembly election announcement for Jammu and Kashmir has triggered fresh political activities and may result in new political alignments here.
In the recently concluded parliamentary election, National Conference has emerged as the dominant force while PDP is lagging behind. Now on Thursday Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar has said that assembly elections would be held very soon in Jammu and Kashmir to allow the people to choose their representatives.
Talking to reporters at New Delhi, Kumar said, “We will give the people an opportunity to form their government and choose their representatives as per their choice as soon as possible”.
“We wanted one good election in Jammu and Kashmir to bring people out (to cast votes). People came out in large numbers there (in recently conducted Parliamentary polls),” he further said.
All the political parties including BJP and Congress have started their preparations on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir as they have the assembly segment wise report card available after the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
According to the break up available after the parliamentary polls, National Conference has dominance on 35 segments in Kashmir valley while PDP could get leads only on 5 segments.
Engineer Rashid, who is in Tihar jail and managed a surprise by winning Baramulla parliamentary segment, could maintain a lead in 14 assembly segments of North Kashmir.
The big upsets have been Sajad Gani Lone’s Peoples Conference, Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).
National Conference has been working on the ground along with PDP in every assembly segment of Kashmir valley and they have not ruled out a political alliance for the assembly polls though they fought against each other in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
PDP President and Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was stunned by her defeat from the Anantnag parliamentary segment while Omar Abdullah also received a shock when he was defeated by Former MLA of Langate, who is jailed known as Engineer Abdul Rashid. In the new political churn, most likely NC, PDP and Congress are going to fight unitedly against BJP and its allies.
As J&K is poised for assembly elections in the coming few months, all the political parties here are trying to forge new alliances and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc is trying to get more political parties and local leaders into their fold.
It is in place to mention that in 2024, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed its highest poll participation in the last 35 years. The Combined Voter Turnout (VTR) at the polling stations for the entire Union Territory (5 Lok Sabha seats) was 58.46 per cent in the General Elections 2024, whereas Srinagar was 38 per cent.
Now there are expectations that J&K will witness huge public participation in the coming assembly elections.