Assembly election dates for J&K and Haryana announced

Assembly election dates for Jammu and Kashmir as well as Haryana were announced on Friday, August 16. While Jammu and Kashmir goes to polls in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1, elections in Haryana will be held on October 1.

The counting of votes will be done on October 4 and results for both states will be declared on the same day, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar while announcing the election details at a press conference held in the Capital.

For the first time in 15 years, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided not to conduct assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra together. The two states have been going to polls together since 2009. However, heavy deployment of forces needed during the three phases of polling in Jammu and Kashmir is the main reason Maharashtra elections have been deferred.

Here are the details of the elections:

JAMMU AND KASHMIR

“Assembly elections will be held in three phases, on September 18th, September 25th and October 1st. Counting of votes will take place on October 4,” CEC Kumar confirmed during the press conference about the Jammu and Kashmir polls.

This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since a union territory was created out of the erstwhile state in 2019, after the abrogation of Article 370.

“There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies in J&K, of which 74 are general, 9 are ST and 7 are SC constituencies,” Rajiv Kumar said, adding that there would be 11,838 polling stations at 9,169 locations in Jammu and Kashmir.

The CEC said there are 87.09 lakh electors in Jammu and Kashmir — 44.46 lakh male and 42.62 lakh female voters. The number of youth voters is more than 20 lakh.

In the 2014 assembly elections, polling was held in 87 seats, of which the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 seats. The PDP and BJP formed a coalition government under Sayeed in 2015, and after his death, Sayeed’s daughter Mehbooba Mufti became the chief minister. The Mehbooba Mufti government, however fell when the BJP withdrew support in 2018. The Governor dissolved the assembly and the former state was put under President’s Rule. Special status was taken away from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

HARYANA

“Assembly elections will be held in one phase, with voting on October 1. Counting of votes will take place on October 4,” the CEC said in the press conference, adding that there would be polling stations in the housing societies of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonipat.

“There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies in Haryana, of which 73 are general, 17 are SC, and zero ST. There will be a total of 2.01 crore voters in Haryana, of which 1.06 crore are males, 0.95 crore are females, 4.52 lakh are first-time voters and 40.95 lakh are young voters,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said.

In all, there will be 20,629 polling stations across 10,500 locations in Haryana, CEC Kumar said, adding that the electoral roll of Haryana would be published on August 27.

In 2019, voting was held in 90 seats of the Haryana assembly. The BJP won 40 seats and the Congress 31. The Jannayak Janta Party won 10 seats while the Indian National Lok Dal and the Haryana Lokhit Party won a seat each. Independent candidates won 7 seats.

NO POLLING IN MAHARASHTRA RIGHT NOW

Unlike in recent past elections, Maharashtra and Haryana will not go to polls together. The ECI team has not yet done a recce of Maharashtra, which is mandatory before announcing election in a state.

The reason is Jammu and Kashmir needs around 700 companies of paramilitary forces for security of candidates during its three-phase elections.

“Last time, Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections were held together. At that time, J&K was not a factor but this time there are four elections this year and a fifth election immediately after this, which is to start with J&K, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi. Depending on the requirement of forces, we have decided to conduct two elections together,” CEC Rajiv Kumar explained in the press conference.

Other reasons, he added, were heavy rains in Maharashtra and a number of festivals coming up in the state.

The tenure of the Maharashtra assembly ends on November 26, 2024.