Decode Politics: Why NC, Apni Party are promising return to J&K Durbar Move :- Try to get more candidates and people to take part. It is said that the Election Commission told people how to get more people to vote in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.
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It is against the rules for the administration and security staff to detain party leaders and workers without a good reason, to move or merge polling booths for security reasons, or to cancel rallies at the last minute, as happened in previous elections.
EC sources say that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar, and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu told officials that only people with a criminal record should be detained and that preventative action should not be based on party politics. They said this while visiting J&K last month.
People who work for parties or are party leaders have been detained before elections in the past. Mehbooba Mufti, who used to be Chief Minister and head of the PDP, brought up the matter during the May Lok Sabha elections, saying that her party workers and polling agents had been detained.
This time, the EC has told officials not to move or merge voting booths, which is another change. An EC source said that in the past, booths were moved a day or two before the election, which made things confusing for voters.
As of Tuesday, the EC had received 3,034 requests for permission to hold meetings or other events from parties and candidates in J&K. Of these, 2,223 were accepted and 327 were turned down.
Haryana is going to vote on October 8. There have been 655 requests, and 428 of them were accepted.
The first part of the Assembly elections in J&K will take place on September 18. The second and third phases will take place on September 25 and October 1, respectively.
These are J&K’s first Assembly elections since the state lost its special status and was split into two Union regions in 2019.
Voter turnout in J&K was 58.58% in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, which was the highest level in 35 years. However, it was lower than the 65.52% turnout in the 2014 Assembly elections.
Former Chief Minister and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah had said earlier that the BJP had made a deal with some of the independent candidates and smaller parties that are running this time. Of the candidates in the Ganderbal district, Abdullah is up against seven Independents and one from a smaller party.