With the Election Commission in Jammu and Kashmir, hopes are high that after a delay of almost six years, elections to the assembly here will be held given commoners a chance to be the decision makers. As reported by media organisations, the ECI team will meet political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to get feedback on conducting Assembly polls in the Union Territory and in this regard, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir, on Tuesday issued letters to various political parties, inviting them for a meeting with the ECI. The ECI, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir from August 8-10 to review preparedness for Assembly polls, weeks before the Supreme Court’s September 30 deadline for holding elections in the Union Territory. It may be recalled here that after a record turnout in the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the ECI had remarked that it was a huge positive for assembly elections to be held soon so that the democratic process continues to thrive in the Union Territory.
Now that the ball has been set rolling, the people of the UT are enthusiastic as they are going to elect their own assembly after almost nine years. Last assembly elections were held in 2014 when Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh were a single unit as a state. In 2018, PDP-BJP coalition fell and in 2019, union government did away with special status of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union Territories. From 2018, Jammu and Kashmir has been directly ruled by New Delhi.
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However, of late there are indications that assembly elections may be held in Jammu and Kashmir in September-October, people here are enthusiastic as they have been out of power from all these years and solely on the mercy of bureaucracy which they prefer to call “Baboodum”. But with the election commission getting active, people’s hopes in the democratic process have got a flip. They are enthusiastic, optimistic and full of hope. Let the authorities read the mood and act accordingly.
People want to be heard, people want a government where they too are stakeholders, people want a dispensation which listens to them. They are fed up with Baboos who look down at them because they had passed some competitive exam to get a job, forgetting that the job was to serve people not rule them.
