High-level ECI team to visit J&K today to review Assembly polls preparedness

A high-level team of the Election Commission of India (ECI), headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, is arriving in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, 8 August to review preparedness for the Assembly polls in the Union Territory.

Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu will accompany the CEC during the visit.

As per the schedule, the ECI team will reach Srinagar at 10 a.m.

At 11.15 am, it will hold meetings with representatives of different political parties including the Congress, BJP, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Aam Admi Party.

The ECI members will not meet the representatives of the Panthers Party as its name and symbol were frozen by the commission on 20 March.

After holding meetings with different political parties, the commission will hold a joint meeting with Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of all 20 districts through video conferencing. The meeting is slated to start at 2 p.m.

At 7 p.m., the ECI team will meet the J&K Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), state poll nodal officer and coordinator of central paramilitary forces to review preparedness for the polls.

After their night halt, the members will hold a meeting with Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Director General of Police (DGP) R.R. Swain at 9 a.m. on Friday., 9 August.

They will leave for Jammu on Friday at 11.40 a.m. At 1 pm on Friday, the ECI team will meet various enforcement agencies in Jammu and before leaving for New Delhi, it will address a news conference at around 2:30 p.m.

The J&K's last elected government was dissolved in June 2018 after the BJP withdrew from the PDP-BJP coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti.

On 5 August, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated and the state was bifurcated into two UTs of J&K and Ladakh each headed by a Lt Governor.