Covid plays spoilsport in delimitation exercise; process completion likely to take some more time
Gul Owais
Srinagar: The Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is unlikely to be conducted in the upcoming year—2021 as the officials said the poll process in would start only after completion the delimitation of Assembly constituencies.
Notably, Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President’s rule from last one year. The erstwhile PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir ended on June 19, 2018 following which Governor’s rule was imposed for six months and later President’s rule came into effect here, which is in place at present.
Reliable sources told Precious Kashmir that there is no headway over holding of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir at present as the delimitation commission headed by Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd) Ranjana Desai has not culminated the process yet.
The commission, which was constituted in March this year, is mandated to fix boundaries of 90 Assembly segments and reserve seats for Schedule Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST).
Sources said the panel constituted has not reached to the conclusion yet and would take some more time to come with its decision.
“It probably would take over ten months more to fix the boundaries of assembly segments in J&K as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the process for a long time and halted the work over it,” they said.
Earlier, the former minister and Apni Party president, Syed Altaf Bukhari had stated that the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held within three months after the delimitation exercise will culminate.
Sources said they don’t see any development on holding of assembly polls at present and are expecting elections probably in 2022.
“I don’t think the assembly polls can be held soon. We need to wait till the delimitation exercise is completed. The poll process will be started only after the exercise ends,” said a top official in the State Election Commission, wishing anonymity.
Pertinently, the mainstream parties in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding immediate conduct of assembly polls, saying people of the newly carved Union Territory want an elected government to resolve their day-to-day issues.
