The Assembly elections for Haryana will be held in a single phase on October 1 and the polling in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 to October 1, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Friday.
As per the announcement, the voters in Jammu and Kashmir will cast their votes on September 18, and September 25, and the third phase will take place on October 1, along with Haryana.
The counting of the votes will take place on October 4 for both states, announced Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
The election body has directed the enforcement agencies to be impartial and transparent for a smooth and fair polling, ensuring a level playing field, the CEC said.
The dates to file the nominations for the first phase will be on August 27, nominations for the second phase will be on September 5, and September 12 is the last day to file nominations for the third phase of the Jammu and Kashmir elections.
There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies, of which 74 are General, nine are ST and seven are SC.
In Jammu and Kashmir, there are 87.09 lakh total electors. Of which 44.46 lakh are male, 42.62 female, 169 are Transgender, 82,590 PwDs, 73943 very senior citizens, 2660 centenarians, 76092 service electors, and 3.71 lakh are first-time voters.
In December of last year, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to conclude the election process by September 30, 2024.
Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of ten years as the last assembly election was held in 2014. The PDP-BJP coalition government fell in June 2018 when the latter withdrew support to the then-Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti.
Meanwhile, in Haryana, there are a total of 2.01 crore voters in Haryana, of which 1.06 crore are males, 0.95 crores are females, 4.52 lakhs are first-time voters and 40.95 lakhs are young voters.
“There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies in Haryana, of which 73 are general, SC-17 and ST-0. 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 lakhs are first-time voters and 40.95 lakhs are young voters. The electoral roll of Haryana will be published on August 27, 2024,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.
The last day to file the nominations of Haryana will be September 12. The date of scrutiny of the nominations is September 13. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures will be September 16.
The term of the current government in Haryana will end on November 3, 2024, and elections will take place in 90 legislative assembly constituencies in the state.
After the 2019 elections, the BJP, with 40 seats in the 90-member assembly, formed a coalition government with the JJP. The JJP had won 10 seats, while the Congress had won 31 seats. The BJP-JJP alliance broke earlier this year.
In 2024, Haryana is likely to see a four-way contest between the BJP, the Congress, the JJP, and the AAP.
When asked about the Maharashtra election, Rajiv Kumar said that Maharashtra elections will be announced later due to security requirements for Jammu and Kashmir.
“Last time, Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections were held together. At that time, J-K was not a factor but this time there are 4 elections this year and 5th 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 2 elections together. The other factor is that there was heavy rainfall in Maharashtra and there are several festivals lined up too,” he added.
Recently, a poll body delegation led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar reviewed the poll preparations in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
“We recently visited Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana to take stock of the election preparation in these places. 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,” Rajiv Kumar said.
