Over 10% rise in J&K voters; UT inching for Assembly polls
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, November 25: Jammu and Kashmir appears inching for Assembly elections in the near future, with the Election Commission on Friday publishing the final electoral roll, which saw about 10 per cent increase in voters over the draft list of the electorate. Jammu and Kashmir now has wrapped up both the delimitation of the constituencies and the electoral roll, which now has almost 99 per cent photo identification.
Holding of the Assembly elections would be a political call of the Narendra Modi government, while the Election Commission has completed most of the formalities in the Union Territory. There are indications that Assembly elections in J&K could be held in the first few months of the next year.
“After the completion of delimitation exercise in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission of India ordered Pre-Revision activities on June 10, 2022, which primarily included the task of mapping the existing Electoral Rolls of 83 pre-delimitation constituencies to the post-delimitation 90 Constituencies, in accordance with the Delimitation Commission’s Order, rationalization of polling stations and integrations of the electoral rolls,” said the J&K administration in an official statement.
On completion of post-delimitation follow-up and pre-revision activities, the Election Commission had ordered Special Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Rolls in Jammu and Kashmir, with reference to October 1, 2022 as the qualifying date. As per schedule notified by the EC, the Draft Rolls were published on September 15, which saw an addition of 613 new polling stations, which resulted in the total Polling Station count as 11370 for J&K. “Total Electors on Draft Electoral Rolls were 7586899 out of which 3948525 were Male Electors, 3638262 were Female Electors and 112 Third Gender Electors. A total of 39192 Electors were flagged as PwD and 1226 as Marked Electors. Photo coverage in the Electoral Roll stood at 99.99 per cent as compared to 96.81 per cent during final publication 2019. Gender ratio of the Draft Electoral Roll was 921 as compared to Census Gender ratio of 914, as per the projected population,” added the J&K administration. Elector Population Ratio of the Draft Electoral Roll was 0.52.
The JK administration also stated that the emphasis of the EC was on registration of young voters as well as the marginalized sections of society, including persons with disabilities (PwD), Third Gender, Women, etc. “The final Electoral Rolls have a total of 8359771 electors, out of which 4291687 are Male, 184 are Third Gender and 4067900 are Females. The Elector Population Ratio has increased from 0.52 to 0.58 during this SSR. The Gender Ratio of the Final Electoral Roll has increased from 921 to 948,” added the J&K administration.
It also stated that for the first time in the history of J&K more than 11 lakh names were included in a single SSR period. “Overall net addition of 772872 electors, i.e., more than 10 per cent of the draft electors is a milestone as the best figure till date even in Election year SSRs was less than two lakh,” added the administration.
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