Counting of votes on Dec 23; EC rejects ruling National Conference’s call to postpone J&K polls

Notwithstanding the Omar Abdullah Government’s reservations, the Election Commission on Saturday announced a five-phase poll for Jammu & Kashmir, besides Jharkhand beginning November 25 till December 20. The election results will be declared on December 23.

Barring the ruling National Conference, which had cited the recent floods and ongoing relief work to press for a deferment of the polls, all other parties in J&K had favoured the elections before the expiry of the term of the 87-member Assembly on January 19.

With the announcement of elections, the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately.

“Polling will take place on November 25, December 2, 9, 14 and 20 in both States,” Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said at a media briefing here.

After scoring impressive victories in Haryana and Maharashtra, the BJP is expecting to carry on its fine run in both J&K and Jharkhand. It has set an ambitious ‘Mission 44’ target for J&K and ‘Mission 55’ in Jharkhand.

Expecting a strong backlash against the Omar Government for its tardy flood relief work, the BJP is hoping to register an impressive performance in the State where the odds are tilted heavily against the erstwhile allies NC and Congress, which were blacked out in the recent Parliamentary polls. The BJP had won 3 of the 6 lok Sabha seats. The BJP currently has 10 MlAs in the J&K Assembly while the NC has 29, Congress 17 and the PDP 19 legislators.

The party feels the Modi wave coupled with factors like the NC-Congress split and above all, the resentment against the Omar dispensation will work in its favour. If garnering the majority mark is a big ask, the BJP is expecting to register a sizeable increase in its numbers compared to its present strength and become a key player in the State’s politics. The Prime Minister’s stay in Kashmir during Diwali and announcement of flood relief package has given a push to BJP’s poll ambitions in the State.

In Jharkhand, the BJP is going for the kill with the aim of forming the Government on its own by taking on the combined might of the JMM-Cong-RJD-JD(U).

It had swept the lok Sabha elections bagging 12 of the 14 seats.  In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, the BJP has 17 seats, the JMM 15, the Congress 12 with JVM and AJSU having 6 seats each. The JMM is trying to pitch itself as the spearhead of the four-party coalition even as the Congress is in two minds though it is presently part of the Government headed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

The term of the Jharkhand Assembly ends on January 3. Under its ‘Mission 55’, the BJP aim to win at least 55 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly election to establish a stable Government in the mineral-rich State, which has faced political uncertainty ever since its creation in 2000 due to fractured mandates leading to coalition Governments.

The EC will employ ‘paper trail’ system in three Assembly constituencies of J&K and seven Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand. The paper trail or voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly and rule out election fraud or malfunction of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Asked whether it was the right decision to hold polls now in J&K, Sampath said the calamity will have no “special impact” on polls. “The EC’s mandate is to hold elections on time,” he said, adding, “The Commission made two-stage verification before announcing the poll schedule.” All political parties (except Omar Abdullah’s party) had said there is no reason or justification to delay polls, the Commission told mediapersons.

As the winter chill sets in, first in the upper reaches of the States and gradually to the Valley, the Commission has spread out the polling into five phases, depending on the climate and geographic location of Assembly segments. The first phase on November 25 will cover 15 Assembly seats. These include three in Baramulla, two in Srinagar, four in ladakh and six in Udhampur. The five-phase polling in Jharkhand is in view of making security arrangements in view of the Naxal menace. Similarly, terrorism in the Valley has been taken into account for spreading out the poll process.

As many as 10,015 polling booths will be set up for facilitating 77.25 lakh voters to exercise their franchise. In the last Assembly elections held in 2008, it was a seven-phase polling that witnessed a good voter turnout of 61 per cent.