SRINAGAR: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar Friday said Election Commission was committed to holding assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir at the earliest, but the suspense over poll dates continued as he underscored that the timeline would be finalised only after a final security assessment in New Delhi.
Addressing a presser in Jammu on the concluding day of the EC team’s visit to J&K to assess ground situation for conducting polls, the CEC, flanked by commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu, asserted that no external or internal forces would be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.
Referring to the recent attacks in Jammu, Kumar said: “Our forces are well-equipped to deal with the situation. We will not allow these small attempts to derail the poll process in J&K.”
The CEC stressed that the attacks could not be allowed to create a “chicken and egg situation” with regard to polls. Such attacks were likely to see an uptick whenever there were talks of holding polls. If the poll process was halted because of that — hoping to go ahead after an improvement in the situation — it would be like conceding defeat, he added.
“The feedback we got from security heads, officers of administration and police chiefs is that though there are a few challenges, they are ready for ensuring peaceful elections,” he said.
J&K has been under central rule since June 2018, Elections were due in 2019, but in Aug that year, Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, stripping J&K of its special status, and bifurcated it into two UTs. In Dec 2023, SC fixed a Sept 30 deadline for the poll panel to hold assembly polls in J&K.
Addressing a presser in Jammu on the concluding day of the EC team’s visit to J&K to assess ground situation for conducting polls, the CEC, flanked by commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu, asserted that no external or internal forces would be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.
Referring to the recent attacks in Jammu, Kumar said: “Our forces are well-equipped to deal with the situation. We will not allow these small attempts to derail the poll process in J&K.”
The CEC stressed that the attacks could not be allowed to create a “chicken and egg situation” with regard to polls. Such attacks were likely to see an uptick whenever there were talks of holding polls. If the poll process was halted because of that — hoping to go ahead after an improvement in the situation — it would be like conceding defeat, he added.
“The feedback we got from security heads, officers of administration and police chiefs is that though there are a few challenges, they are ready for ensuring peaceful elections,” he said.
J&K has been under central rule since June 2018, Elections were due in 2019, but in Aug that year, Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, stripping J&K of its special status, and bifurcated it into two UTs. In Dec 2023, SC fixed a Sept 30 deadline for the poll panel to hold assembly polls in J&K.
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