‘Turnout shows people eager to participate in democratic process’
Polling in elections highest in four decades
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 3: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar today once again announced that the EC was enthused by the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir during just concluded Parliamentary elections and will start the process for Assembly elections in the Union Territory very soon.
Assembly polls are overdue in Jammu and Kashmir as they haven’t been held even after completion of the exercise by the Delimitation Commission and voter revision. Last Assembly elections were held in November-December 2014 in the erstwhile undivided State of Jammu and Kashmir also comprising the Union Territory of Ladakh.
At a press conference in New Delhi, CEC Rajiv Kumar declared that the Election Commission will very soon start the process of holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir saying it was enthused by the voter turnout in the UT.
He said the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir showed eagerness of the people to participate in the democratic process. Click here to watch video
“We are very enthused. It is one of the most satisfying moments. We will very soon start the process of conducting Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.
Kumar said the polling percentage in Jammu and Kashmir in the Parliamentary polls came out at 58.58 which was highest in last four decades. In Kashmir valley, the voting percentage stood at 51.05, he added.
The CEC was flanked by Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu.
In March when the Election Commission announced schedule for Parliamentary polls, Kumar had said that holding Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir simultaneously was not practical due to logistical and security reasons.
Whenever Assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since the August 2019 abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the division of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
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Following delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir has gone up to 90. In addition, 24 seats are reserved in J&K Assembly for Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK). Besides, there is provision for nomination of two Women, two Kashmiri migrants including a woman and one PoJK refugee. The nominated members are also expected to have the voting rights.
In December last year, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission to hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30, 2024.
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir need four to five phases and timing of a month. If September 30 deadline has to be met, first phase of the elections has to start by the end of August. Annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath Ji will conclude on August 19 coinciding with Shravan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan. The 52-day-long yatra will start on June 29.
PTI adds from New Delhi: India created a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participating in the Lok Sabha elections this year, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Monday.
Addressing a press briefing, he said over 68,000 monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel were involved in the world’s largest electoral exercise.
“India created a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participating in the Lok Sabha elections this year,” said Kumar.
On social media memes calling Election Commissioners ‘Laapataa Gentlemen’, Kumar said, “We were always here, never went missing.”
“Now memes can say the ‘Laapataa Gentlemen’ are back,” he said.
Kumar said that nearly four lakh vehicles, 135 special trains and 1,692 air sorties were used for conducting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Only 39 repolls took place in the 2024 general elections as against 540 repolls in 2019,” he said.
“Seizures of Rs 10,000 crore, including cash, freebies, drugs and liquor, were made during the 2024 polls as compared to Rs 3,500 crore in 2019,” he said.
Kumar said “fake” and “mischievous” narratives were spread to sway the general elections and sought proof from the opposition to back its claim that District Magistrates were influenced to vitiate the poll process.
“You cannot spread a rumour and bring everyone under a cloud of suspicion,” Kumar said, citing opposition claims on faulty electoral rolls, the efficacy of EVMs, voter turnout and the counting process.
“There is a pattern, there is a design, I’m not saying it’s a toolkit. But there is a design,” the CEC said, adding that cases pending for years were raked up just four days before the first phase of polling.
The Commission had made preparations to deal with any foreign attempt to influence the poll process but these allegations have come from within the country itself, he said in an apparent dig at the opposition.
“We failed to understand the fake narratives that were going on during the elections, but we have understood now,” Kumar said.
With the EC facing criticism for holding elections in peak summer, the CEC said one of three big learnings from the polls was that this process should have been completed a month earlier.
“They shouldn’t have been held in such hot weather. It is a big election that involves a lot of forces. There is a lot of movement. We cannot reduce the time taken for the process but it could have been done earlier instead of in such heat,” Kumar said.
“We failed to understand the fake narratives that were going on during the elections. But we have understood it now… We have to prepare next time to fight the fake narratives,” the CEC said.
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