EC To Announce Schedule Of Assembly Elections At 3 PM Today, J&K Poll Dates Likely To Be Out

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the schedule for Assembly elections at 3 pm today. Assembly elections are due in Haryana and Maharashtra and also in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where the Supreme Court deadline for holding polls ends on September 30.

An EC invite to the media for a press conference around 3 pm did not mention the states for which the election schedule would be announced.

Last December, the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30.

Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in 2019.

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The last assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, when Ladakh was its part, were held in five phases. This time too the number of phases could be the same.

The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir is usually spread over a month.

A delegation of the Election Commission of India (EC), led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, visited Jammu and Kashmir from August 8-10 to review preparedness for assembly polls. Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, EC has so far visited Haryana as well to assess poll preparedness and is yet to visit Maharashtra.

It is not yet clear whether polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held along with other states where assembly elections are due or separately.

Last time, Haryana and Maharashtra polls were held together and Jharkhand elections were announced later.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra end on November 3 and November 26 respectively.

After record turnout in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir, CEC Rajiv Kumar had said, "This active participation is a huge positive for assembly elections to be held soon so that the democratic process continues to thrive in the Union Territory."