“Lambi kataron mein chhupi hai badalte surat-e-haal yani jamhooriyat ki kahani. Roshan ummeedein ab khud karengi gawa apni taqdeer-e-bayani. Jamhooriyat ke jashn mein aapki shirkat duniya dekhegi napak iraadon ke shikasht ki kahani,” read out Rajiv Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner while he announced the assembly polls on Friday.
As the Chief Election Commissioner, Kumar, read out the couplet, implying, ‘the story of changing circumstances is hidden in long queues and democracy would defeat sinister intentions”, the announcement of the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir assumes great importance for several reasons.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir had waited for 10 years to vote for their state Assembly, and with the announcement, the wait seems to have been over.
The circumstances have changed greatly since the last election. Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated in 2019, and it was bifurcated into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. It is also the first polls after the delimitation exercise in 2022.
The Supreme Court had earlier set a deadline of September 30 for elections in J&K. The Election Commission on Friday said that election in J&K would start from September 18 and end on October 1, with the result day marked for October 4.
The three-phase election would elect 90 members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
FIRST ASSEMBLY ELECTION SINCE 2014
Come to its significance, firstly, the election will be the first since the revocation of Article 370 and Article 35A in 2019, the subsequent bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, and it being downgraded to a union territory.
Since June 2018, there has been no elected state legislature in the state, after former governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved it.
The proposed elections would also be after a gap of almost 10 years since 2014, when assembly polls for Jammu and Kashmir last took place. Although three Lok Sabha elections in 2014, 2019 and 2024 were held in Jammu and Kashmir, June 2014 was the last time that Vidhan Sabha elections were held.
“The troubles that people have faced for the past 10 years will end after this election,” Democratic Progressive Azad Party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the poll dates were announced for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
FIRST ASSEMBLY ELECTION AFTER 2022 DELIMITATION
Secondly, the 2024 election in Jammu and Kashmir would also be significant as it would be the first election to the state Assembly, following the delimitation process. The delimitation process involved redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies based on population data from the most recent Census [2011] to ensure equal representation.
The delimitation process, completed in May 2022, increased the total seats in the assembly to 114, with 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.
The remaining 90 seats would be contested, with 43 in the southern Jammu region and 47 in Kashmir to the north. This Supreme Court-administered delimitation exercise added six seats to Jammu and one seat to the Kashmir region, paving way for the 2024 fresh polls.
National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah also welcomed the announcement, saying his party was ready for the election.
“Der aaye durust aye. The National Conference was ready for this day. We will begin our election campaign soon…,” said Abdullah, the former CM of the erstwhile state.
In the meantime, a number of local level polls like 2018 municipal elections, 2018 panchayat elections, 2020 District Development Councils elections, were also organised in the union territory, in addition to the Lok Sabha polls.
Home Minister Amit Shah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had expressed hope that the democratic exercise will take place soon. Shahs had outlined that following the sequence of delimitation, Assembly polls, the question of statehood would be addressed.
ASSEMBLY POLLS IN J&K, A MESSAGE
After the poll date announcement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The assembly election will further strengthen the roots of democracy, opening the door to a new period of development for the region”.
That the 2024 Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir is a message in itself, security expert Lt Gen (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain said, “A successful assembly election, which is a bread-and-butter election, actually conveys the message that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are with us and want to be a part of us”.
“The most important message that the assembly election sends out is that India continues to cement its hold over Jammu and Kashmir,” Lt Gen (Rtd) Hasnain told India Today TV.
The announcement can also be viewed in the context of the ongoing demands for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood by the Jammu and Kashmir-based parties since 2019.
“I am very positive that statehood is the next step, which is not very far away,” SY Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India told India Today TV.
Before Article 370 was scrapped, the BJP and the Mufti-led Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formed a coalition government, with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed becoming the Chief Minister. Following Sayeed’s death in January 2016, his daughter Mehbooba Mufti became the Chief Minister following a brief period of governor’s rule.
The polls will also be a significant test for political parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the bloc of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), which have been prominent since the special status was scrapped.
People are ready to participate in the celebration of democracy. Voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir saw the highest voter turnout in the last 35 years.
The election after a 10-year hiatus is definitely going to be a jamooriyat ka jashn, and also a strong message from India.