Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 7: A team of Election Commission of India (ECI) reached here this afternoon on a three days visit of Jammu and Kashmir to assess the post-floods situation, hold review with Election Department officials, District Electoral Officers (DEOs), political parties and other stakeholders before taking a decision on holding Assembly election in the State, which were due in November-December this year.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the ECI team headed by Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi arrived here this afternoon on a three days visit of Jammu to discuss election preparedness and make an assessment as to whether the Assembly elections can be held in November-December or they had to be deferred in view of heavy floods in various parts of the State, which killed about 300 persons, injured scores of others and rendered lakhs of people homeless.
Immediately on his arrival here, Zutshi had a meeting with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Umang Narula and other senior officers of the State Election Department and discussed with them the preparedness for the Assembly elections.
Sources said the CEO and other officers briefed Zutshi. The Election Commission had to defer the publication of final electoral rolls from October 1 to 15 as some of the DEOs in Kashmir and Poonch district of Jammu hadn’t been able to complete the task in view of their preoccupation with relief and rehabilitation for the flood victims.
Several other aspects like weather conditions in the State in December figured in the meeting.
Tomorrow morning, the Deputy Election Commissioner will interact with all DEOs through video conferencing and take their assessment of the situation including preparedness for Assembly elections. He would take district wise assessment of the situation from the DEOs including number of polling stations damaged in the floods, publication of electoral rolls on October 15 and all other issues related to the elections.
He video conferencing was expected to last about two hours.
Sources said Zutshi would also hold meeting with recognized national and state political parties (two representatives from each party) and take their view point on holding or deferring the Assembly elections. He will take assessment of the situation on holding the Assembly elections from all political parties in their meeting.
Zutshi along with Narula would fly to Srinagar tomorrow afternoon where they would have on spot assessment of the situation including Srinagar district, which was worst hit by the floods. Zutshi would meet some senior functionaries of the Government to ascertain their view point on the situation before returning to New Delhi on Thursday.
Term of the Legislative Assembly expires on January 19 and the new Assembly had to be in place before that, which means the Election Commission had to hold elections in the State before the middle of December. However, if the Election Commission felt that post-flood scenario was not conducive for holding the elections, it could defer the polls, which could lead to imposition of Governor’s rule in the State on January 19. In that scenario, the Assembly elections then can be held in April-May.
Sources said Zutshi will submit his report to the full Election Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath after returning to New Delhi. It is to be seen whether the full Election Commission led by Sampath decides to undertake a visit to Jammu and Kashmir or takes decision on holding or deferring the elections on the basis of the report of Deputy Election Commissioner.
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