Parties fret as Centre maintains studied silence on J-K election

But the ECI gave no specific timeline to the delegation for the election, although it assured them of its seriousness to hold the exercise. BJP’s reassurance BJP secretary Arun Chugh accused the regional political parties of sowing confusion about the polls saying the Panchayat and District Development Council polls have already been held in the union territory. But another leader Ashok Kaul, however, batted for Assembly polls saying the Assembly is the only forum to make laws which the local bodies or district development councils (DDCs) cannot. “Assembly is a forum where laws are made. A DDC chairman will not make laws, panchs will not make laws,” General Secretary (organisation), J&K BJP, Ashok Kaul, told reporters. But nothing appears set to change on the ground. More so, when the only excuse that the union government peddled to justify postponement of elections in the UT- the fresh delimitation of the electoral constituencies – no longer exists. In May 2022, the Delimitation Commission completed the task of redrawing the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the ECI also worked on the revised voter list, which was published in November 2022, adding over seven lakh new voters. Despite these developments, the Assembly elections have not been scheduled, leading various political parties to exert pressure for the polls to be held. The protracted delay in conducting the polls in Jammu and Kashmir has caused widespread resentment among the people. Although the central government has time and again expressed its intention to hold the elections as soon as possible, there is no clear timeline for when that will happen. Around nine Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the country before the general elections. Among them, the elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana will be very crucial. But J&K is not one of them. “The centre has maintained a studied silence on the issue,” said a local political analyst not wanting to be named. “The occasional utterance by a senior BJP leader has passed the buck on to the ECI. The ECI, in turn, has gone silent on the issue. So, nothing is likely to change.”.