New Delhi, Mar 17 : Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Tarun Chugh said on Sunday that the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will happen according to the Supreme Court's direction.
“Everybody has faith in the Election Commission. According to the Supreme Court's direction, the elections will happen in Jammu and Kashmir in September,” he said.
Earlier today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said that it was shocking but was expected.
“Shocking, but that is expected. They will have no polls in J&K, and what is even more shocking is that Sonam Wangchuk, who is on fast, wants to have ‘district hill status' and they are not even providing that,” he said.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday that the J-K Assembly polls will be held after the Lok Sabha elections.
CEC Kumar said, “We are yet to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. I mentioned in the press conference earlier today that the way for conducting legal elections has opened since December 23. This is March, and there is snowfall in the region, hence the question of holding elections does not arise at this point.”
“We (ECI) went to Jammu and Kashmir and were asked by all the political parties there to hold the state assembly elections with the Lok Sabha polls. After that, we held administrative meetings wherein it was discussed that a lot of security forces would be required to conduct state assembly election with Lok Sabha election in J-K,” he said.
The general election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases from April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday. The counting will be held on June 4.
Nearly 97 crore voters will be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. With the announcement of dates, the moral code of conduct comes into force immediately.
