New Delhi. The much-awaited elections for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly have finally been announced, which will be held in three phases. This will be the first assembly election in the state after the removal of Article 370. Along with this, the Election Commission has also announced the assembly elections for Haryana, which will be held in just one phase. Voting for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will be held on 18, 25 September and 1 October, while voting for the Haryana Assembly will be held on 1 October. The results of both states will be declared on 4 October.

Enrollment will start from August 20

The commission recently visited both the states to inspect the election preparations. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the dates for the assembly elections in Jammu-Kashmir and Haryana on Friday in the presence of fellow election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhvir Singh Sandhu. According to the Chief Election Commissioner, nominations for the first phase of 24 assembly seats in Jammu-Kashmir will begin from August 20.

Tight security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir

Nominations for the 26 assembly seats of the second phase will start from August 29 and for the 40 assembly seats of the third phase will start from September 5. Nominations for all 90 assembly seats of Haryana will start from September 5. The commission has made strict security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir which is sensitive from the security point of view. Along with this, information was also given about providing security to all the officials of political parties including the candidates during the elections.

The commission said that the political parties had made this demand during the state visit. From a political perspective, the assembly elections in both these states are very important. Especially in Jammu and Kashmir, assembly elections are going to be held for the first time after 2014. At present, there is President's rule in the state.

A fresh delimitation was also done

Earlier, the commission had also done fresh delimitation of assembly seats in the state. Hence, the number of assembly seats in the state has increased to 90. Before the reorganization of the state, there were a total of 87 assembly seats here, but due to the separation of Ladakh-Kargil, the total number of assembly seats here was reduced to 83. Seven new assembly seats were created here in the delimitation.

Out of the total 90 assembly seats in the state, 74 seats are general, while nine seats are reserved for SC and seven for SC. Not only this, now the term of the assembly in the state will be five years which was earlier six years. On the other hand, BJP is in power in Haryana for the last ten years. In such a situation, while regaining power in the state is a big challenge for it, in the changed equation, parties like Congress and AAP are also struggling to be seen strongly in the field.

BJP did not field any candidate in the valley in the Lok Sabha elections

After the enthusiasm shown by the voters in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent Lok Sabha elections and breaking the record of decades, it is expected that the assembly elections will be interesting. In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP did not field its candidates in the valley, so it will be interesting to see what strategy BJP adopts in the assembly elections.

Elections will be held later in Maharashtra

Indicating that Maharashtra assembly elections will be held after Diwali, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the need for additional security forces in Jammu and Kashmir is also a reason for this. He also said, there has been heavy rainfall in Maharashtra and BLOs have to complete their work. There are also many festivals which have to be kept in mind. Ganesh Utsav, Pitru Paksha, Navratri, Diwali, keeping all these in mind, we thought that we can handle two elections simultaneously.

CEC said, three gentlemen are back

At the start of the press conference to announce the elections, Rajiv Kumar introduced his fellow election commissioners and said in a light-hearted manner, "Three gentlemen are back." His statement is believed to be a response to a popular meme circulated during the Lok Sabha elections in which the three were called missing gentlemen amid alleged violations of the Model Code of Conduct.

Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections at a glance

• Voting – in three phases – on September 18, 25 and October 1.
• Counting of votes – on October 4
• Total assembly seats in the state- 90 (General- 74, ST-09 and SC-07)
• Total Voters- 87.09 Lakh (as on 25 July 2024)
• Final publication of voter list- 20 August
• Male voters- 44.46 lakh, Female voters- 42.62 lakh.
• First-time voters - 3.71 lakh (18-19 years age group)
• Total young voters- 20.70 lakh (age group of 20 to 29 years)
• Voters aged 100 years or more - 2,66085
• Voters aged 50 years and above - 73,943 Total polling stations - 11,838, located at 9,169 locations.
• Women-operated polling stations - 90
• Model polling stations – 360
• Average number of voters at polling stations - 735

Haryana assembly elections at a glance

• Voting- in one phase- 1 October
• Counting of votes - October 4
• Total assembly seats in the state- 90 (General- 73 and SC-17)
• Total Voters- 2.01 crore (as on August 2)
• Male voters- 1.06 crore and female voters- 95 lakh
• Young voters – 40.95 lakh (age group of 20 to 29 years)
• First time voters – 4.52 lakh (18-19 years age group)
• Publication of final voter list- August 27
• Voters aged 100 years and above - 10,32185
• Voters aged 1 year and above: 2.55 lakh
• Total polling stations- 20,629
• Of these, 7,132 are in urban areas and 13,497 in rural areas.
• Average number of voters at polling station- 977