Electoral roll revision in Jammu and Kashmir raises a storm

The new electoral revision announced by the Election Commission in the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir has sparked a row with all Opposition parties up in arms against the EC’s move.

On August 17, J&K Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar announced that anyone “who is living ordinarily in J&K” can avail of the opportunity to get enlisted as a voter in the Union territory in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

This raised concerns that the move would open the floodgates and turn locals into an electoral minority.

Also read: Congress all set to oppose inclusion of non-local voters in J&K’s electoral rolls

What did EC say

Kumar said that many people who were not enlisted as voters in the erstwhile state of J&K are now eligible to vote after the reading down of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. The Election Commission was expecting an addition of 20-25 lakh new voters in the final list in J&K, he added.

The EC is working on fresh electoral rolls after the J&K Delimitation Commission earlier this year carved out seven new assembly constituencies in the union territory, six going to Jammu division and one to Kashmir, under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act adopted in 2019. Jammu now has 43 seats against 47 in Kashmir.

The EC has decided that it will also include any person who has attained the age of 18 years on or before October 1, 2022 in the fresh electoral rolls. Kumar said the projected 18-plus population of J&K was around 98 lakh. The final electoral roll will be published on November 25.

Kumar said there was no need for a person to have a domicile certificate of J&K to become a voter. “An employee, a student, a labourer or anyone from outside who is living ordinarily in J&K can enlist his or her name in the voting list,” he said.

Opposition reacts sharply

The new electoral revisions sparked a row in the union territory, leading to all the opposition parties banding together and slamming the Centre for this move. All political parties in J&K, except the BJP, reacted sharply to the EC announcement.

The National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, CPI(M) and Peoples Conference have expressed concerns that the move will open the floodgates and turn locals into an electoral minority. Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said that there was a plan to bring 25 lakh non-locals and make them eligible to cast their votes in the next J&K elections. “This is the last nail in the coffin of electoral democracy,” Mufti said.

Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone compared the move with the 1987 rigged elections in J&K, which resulted in mass militancy in Kashmir in the 1990s. “Please remember 1987. We are yet to come out of that. Don’t re-play 1987. It will be disastrous,” Lone warned.

Govt clarification

Following the outrage, the government on Saturday issued a clarification, saying the reports of a likely addition of over 25 lakh voters after the summary revision of electoral rolls was a “misrepresentation of facts by vested interests”. The government said the Kashmiri migrants “will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi, etc.”

All-party meet called

But, dissatisfied with the clarification issued by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference party chief Farooq Abdullah has called for an all-party meeting.

Parties like the NC and PDP claimed the administration had not addressed their main concern on whether “outsiders” ordinarily residing in J-K would be allowed to enroll as voters. “So, the meeting will discuss everything threadbare. Even the clarification will be discussed. It is an all-party meeting and every party will present their point of view,” PDP chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said.

Slamming the move on Twitter, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti wrote, “The ‘clarification’ issued by DIPR is a silent endorsement of the statement given by the Chief Election Officer. Doesn’t address our apprehensions about non-locals en masse being given the power to vote. Yet another design to dispossess people of J&K.”

Also read: Kashmiri Pandits may get 2 seats in J&K assembly on delimitation panel’s advice

This revision comes as Jammu and Kashmir is expected to have an election in 2023, with the union territory remaining without a government for over four years.