SRINAGAR: The Election Commission of India announced on Saturday that there will be no simultaneous assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir alongside the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
CEC Rajiv Kumar, addressing a press conference in New Delhi said that only four states – Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh – will hold simultaneous elections with the Lok Sabha polls.
“Some laws were changed in 2019. These changes increased the number of seats in the assembly to 107, with 24 of them reserved for people from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Then, there was another change in the number of seats, bringing it up to 114, still with 24 reserved for people from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. But these changes weren’t all sorted out until December 2023. So, they couldn’t start planning for the assembly elections until then,” CEC said.
He further said, “During our recent trip to Srinagar and Jammu, the JK Administration explicitly stated that holding two elections simultaneously isn’t feasible due to heightened security demands.”
However, the CEC assured that the Commission remains dedicated to organising Assembly elections in JK shortly after the Lok Sabha polls, once there are enough security forces available.
