JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is “giving final touches” to holding elections by the third week of October as the central government is keen to put a popular government in place there “well before the parliamentary elections,” official sources said yesterday.
All arrangements for conduct of assembly elections are in place and “we can go ahead with the process any time it is announced by the Election Commission,” a source in the state government said.
He revealed: “We have indications that the elections may be held in four phases beginning from the third week of October and finishing by the second week of November’.
The new assembly had to be earlier elected by Nov. 20. But the state came under Governor’s rule on July 7 after Ghulam Nabi Azad put in his papers following withdrawal of support by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on the issue of land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
The six months of Governor’s rule end on Jan. 7, 2009, but “the election process must be over before the harsh wintry conditions set in.” The Election Commission (EC) has already begun the process of gauging the ground situation for the conduct of elections.
