Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Polls 2024: The Election Commission of India on Friday announced the schedule for upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Polling to elect 90 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly will take place in three phases starting from September 18 and the counting of votes is scheduled for October 4, the Election Commission informed. It will be the first election in the valley since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in 2019.
Here are schedules for polling:
- First phase of voting: September 18
- Second phase of voting: September 25
- Third phase of voting: October 1
- Result Date: October 4
Election after 10 years in J-K
Following a delimitation exercise, the number of Assembly seats has gone up from 83 to 90, excluding those allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of ten years as the last assembly election was held in 2014. The PDP-BJP coalition government fell in June 2018 when the latter withdrew support to the then-Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti.
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections 2014
The 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election was held in five phases from November 25– December 20 2014. The results were declared on December 23. Just before the election, Congress broke its alliance with the National Conference and contested on all seats in the assembly alone. This was the last assembly election before the territory's special status was revoked and Ladakh separated as Union territory in 2019.
In the total of 87 seats constituency, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Front (JKPDP) won 28 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 seats, the National Conference secured 15 seats, the Congress 12 seats, the JKPC 2 seats, the CPI(M) and JKPDF 1 seat each, and Independent 3 seats. The PDP and the BJP officially started talks. Both parties had a two-member team to form a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The new PDP-BJP government took the oath of office on 1 March with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as chief minister for the full term of six years and BJP's Nirmal Kumar Singh as his deputy. This was the first time that the BJP was a coalition partner in the Jammu and Kashmir government.
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