'Ballot over bullet': Jammu and Kashmir to vote in three phases; ECI announces election dates

NEW DELHI: The assembly election dates for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana have been announced on Friday. Chief Election Commission Rajeev Kumar informed that the election will be held in three phases in Jammu and Kashmir. The first phase of the election is on September 18. The second phase will be held on September 25 and the third phase on October 1. Haryana will go into polling booths on October 1. The results in both the states will be out on October 4. The by-election dates across India are yet to be announced.

The tenure of the Haryana government ends on November 3. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered elections to be announced by September 30 in Jammu and Kashmir; the only state in India that has not seen elections for the last 10 years.

Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar informed that the election preparations in Jammu Kashmir and Haryana have been assessed. He also requested the people of Kashmir to come in big numbers to participate in the democracy’s biggest festival.

Voting will be held in Jammu through ballot. The Election Commission has also allowed immigrants to register their vote. There are 11,838 polling booths in Kashmir. Each booth has 735 voters. Many expected the ECI to announce election dates in Maharashtra and Jharkhand but to no avail.

In Haryana, BJP is facing anti-incumbency after being in power for ten years. Recently BJP replaced Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini to revamp the party’s chances in the state. In 2014, the BJP seized power in the state through the Modi wave phenomenon but had to pay the price for the sluggish work as the party’s vote share dwindled in 2019.