At last, J&K set for democratic rule

The Supreme Court’s order had been implemented meticulously by the Election Commission and election has been declared in J&K after a long wait of 10 years, after it has been divided into two UTs of J&K and Ladakh. The ground reality of security concerns amid sponsored terror from another prickly neighbour in Pakistan, which shares a Line of Control with J&K,may not change even if elected representatives run the government in Jammu Kashmir

The holding of the District Development Council polls in December 2020 and the Lok Sabha polls last April-May without a scare from imported or homegrown terror provided proof it is perfectly possible to hold polls in J&K without having to trot out the excuse of terror threats.

Three-phase polls on September 18 and 25 and October 1 with due consideration for the logistics of deployment of forces for orderly conduct in J&K makes a perfect sense as it was also demand of all political parties that the election span should not be too lengthy and should be shorter. In the last years J&K has seen President’s rule, abrogation of Section 370 and bifurcation of the state and the exercise of delimitation and after delimitation exercise the Jammu region’s seat count has risen sizably from 37 to 43 while the number of Assembly constituencies in Kashmir has gone up from 46 to 47. Now it is the responsibility of stakeholders to maintain peace in the state and the congenial environment should be created so that maximum votes may come to the polling stations ànd exercise their votes

– Yash Pal Ralhan, Jalandhar

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The ECI richly deserves compliments for announcing the 3- phased Assembly election schedule for J&K and Haryana. (Poll panel declares 3-phased polls in JK, 17 Aug). This is certainly a good news for the Kashmiris, who have been demanding assembly polls for the last 10 years. In this regard, even though the declaration of assembly polls in J&K is a very significant political development, one glaring deficiency is prominently felt by the Kashmiri people, and that is none other than the promised statehood to J&K. Hope, the Centre listens to the Manni Baath of post-370 J&K. Evidently, the Kashmiri heart is beating for statehood.

– P H Hema Sagar, Secunderabad

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The J&K Assembly needing three phased elections speaks about the sensitive nature of process in that State. After revocation of Article 370, J&K witnessed elections for District Development Councils in December 2020 and faced the lengthy and exhaustive Lok Sabha elections along with the rest of the country. The District Development Councils elections offered a chance to new leadership after abrogation of Article 370. The 58.46% of poll in Lok Sabha elections says the voters in the valley turned back on boycott and the bullet in favour of ballot as it was the highest percentage of turnout in the last 35 years. However, the ECI must assure the voters the transparency in the election process as it was alleged that in 140 Lok Sabha seats in the latest general elections, 5 crore more votes were counted than actually polled, and, in AP, nearly 45 lakh more votes were counted as per the reports of Vote for Democracy (VfD ). Thus the election process should have transparency and accountability.

– Pratapa Reddy Y, Tiruvuru, NTR dt, AP