The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced that voting in Haryana will be held on October 1 to elect a new state government and the results will be declared on October 4. The ECI also announced that the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections will be held in three phases, beginning September 18, with results to be declared on October 4.
There are 90 seats in the Haryana assembly, including 73 General and 17 Scheduled Castes (SC) seats. As many as 10,321 centenarians voters will also be part of the democractic process.
In J&K, a total of 20,629 polling stations – including 7,132 urban and 13,497 rural – will be set up for over 2 crore voters, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. Booths will be set up in multistoried buildings as well in urban areas in Gurugram, Sonepat and Faridabad.
Jammu and Kashmir will vote in three phases – September 18, 25 and October 1. On September 18, voting will be held at 24 seats. On September 25, another 26 seats will vote. The final phase on October 1 will see voting in 40 seats, the poll panel said.
CEC Rajiv Kumar said there are a total of 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 74 are general, SC-7 and ST-9. “There will be a total of 87.09 lakh voters in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 44.46 lakh are males, 42.62 lakh are females, 3.71 lakh are first-time voters and 20.7 lakh are young voters. The Amarnath Yatra will end on August 19 and the final voter list will also be published on August 20,” he said.
The poll panel recently visited Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana to review the preparations for the Assembly elections 2024.
CEC Rajiv Kumar said that a great enthusiasm was seen among the people. They wanted to participate in the election process. People want elections to be conducted there as early as possible…The long queues at the polling booth in J&K during the Lok Sabha elections are proof that people not only want change but also want to raise their voice by becoming a part of that change. This glimpse of hope and democracy shows that the people want to change the picture. They want to write their own destiny. The people of Jammu and Kashmir chose ballot over bullet in Lok Sabha elections.
Elections to Jammu and Kashmir assembly is also due after the Supreme Court set September 30, 2024 deadline for holding polls in the UT.Jammu and Kashmir has been under Central rule since June 19, 2018, following the collapse of a coalition government headed by the People’s Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti after the pullout of its alliance partner BJP.
The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, the two mainstream regional parties of the UT are likely to face each other during the upcoming assembly polls. The National Conference is headed by former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and PDP is headed by former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. The two parties, in the INDIA bloc, have decided to fight the Assembly elections without any pre-poll alliance. The two parties contested against each other for three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir earlier this year.
Both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assemblies have 90 seats each. Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will be held later.
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