New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar Wednesday said that the poll panel was aware that there was a “vacuum” in Jammu and Kashmir that needed to be filled.
“We are aware that there is a vacuum that needs to be filled,” he said addressing a news conference convened to announce the schedule for the Karnataka assembly polls.
The CEC had recently said that assembly polls in J&K would be held keeping in mind various factors, including weather and security concerns.
He had said that the delimitation process in J&K was completed and so was the special summary revision or revision of electoral roll.
Kumar had said returning officers and additional electoral registration officers had also been appointed in the rearranged and new constituencies.
Talking to reporters today, the CEC said that the fresh revision of electoral rolls in J&K does not disturb the schedule or the conduct of the polls.
He said that in J&K, the special summary revision took place taking October 1 as the qualifying date while in the rest of the country, January 1 was the qualifying or the cut-off date.
“We went for October 1 as the qualifying date in J&K as we wanted to complete the process as fast as possible,” Kumar said. “The process of fresh special summary revision is to bring J&K at par as far as the voter list is concerned.”
He said that the fresh special summary revision of electoral rolls in J&K does not disturb the scheduled part or the conduct of polls.
“That depends on various other factors which, we will come back to you,” the CEC said.
A few days ago, the poll panel had ordered a fresh special summary revision of the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir.
While April 1 has been set as the qualifying date for the summary revision, May 10 is the date for publication of the final electoral rolls.
Following a recent amendment in the election law based on the recommendation of the poll panel, there are four qualifying dates or cut-off dates – January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 – to enroll as voters.
Earlier, January 1 was the only cut-off date.