Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
SRINAGAR—A political storm has hit Jammu and Kashmir after chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar announced to include 25 lakh additional voters, including outsiders, in the electoral rolls.
The special summary revision of electoral rolls is being held for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370,
“After the abrogation of Article 370, many people who were not enlisted as voters in the erstwhile state of J&K are now eligible to vote and in addition, anyone who is living ordinarily can also avail the opportunity to get enlisted as a voter in J&K,” Kumar said.
He said the projected 18-plus population of J&K is around 98 lakhs, while the number of enlisted voters is 76 lakh according to the last voter list. “We are expecting an addition of 20 to 25 lakh new voters in the final list,” Kumar said.
The CEO said pre-revision activities, as well as post delimitation, follow-up work are going on in the UT. “Existing electoral roll is being mapped into the newly delimited Assembly Constituencies as per the Delimitation Commission’s final order made applicable by the Union Law Ministry with effect from May 20, 2022. As part of the pre-revision activities, the process of rationalization/ re-arrangement of polling stations, removal of discrepancies of demographically similar entries/similar photo entries, duplicate EPICS, preparation of supplements, and integrated draft roll is also going on at present,” he said.
The inclusion of outsiders as voters has snowballed into a major controversy with political parties calling it an attempt to change the demographic status of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Chief Electoral Officer issued a new diktat. BJP’s 25 lakh voters, who are non-locals, will be included as voters in J&K. This is the last nail in the coffin of electoral democracy in J&K. If 25 lakh BJP voters will come from outside, what will remain the value of voters of Jammu and Kashmir? J&K issue has gone beyond elections now. The time has come to resolve the Kashmir issue.” said Mehbooba Mufti, former J&K chief minister.
Another former chief minister Omar Abdullah said BJP is insecure and trying to import voters from outside. “Is the BJP so insecure about support from genuine voters of Jammu and Kashmir that it needs to import temporary voters to win seats? None of these things will help the BJP when the people of Jammu and Kashmir are given a chance to exercise their franchise,” he tweeted.
Peoples Conference’s Sajad Lone said, “This is dangerous. I don’t know what they want to achieve. This is much more than mischief. Democracy is a relic, especially in the context of Kashmir. Please remember 1987. We are yet to come out of that. Don’t replay 1987. It will be as disastrous.”
The opposition has gone a step further and called for an all-party meeting minus BJP on Monday to discuss the issue. Rising above ideological differences, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has invited all the political parties to the meeting.
Sensing trouble, the government has given front-page advertisements in all newspapers to set the records straight.
“There is no change in the special provisions for Kashmiri migrants for their enrolment in the electoral rolls of their original native constituencies. They will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through a postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi, etc. “There have been media reports that more than 25 lakh additions will be there in the electoral rolls once the process of electoral roll revision starts,” the government said.
