Omkar Dattatray
It is no ordinary thing that the Prime Minister of the country Narendra Modi has the other day after leading the nation to celebrate the international day of Yoga, unequivocally ,categorically and in uncertain terms stated that the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted very soon .PM also said that the people of J&K will have their local government in place soon and the full statehood will also be restored soon to Jammu and Kashmir .The people of Jammu and Kashmir have taken the declaration of the prime minister very positively and they have in fact rejoiced as the assembly elections in J&K will be held soon and the people will exercise their democratic right of adult franchise very soon and all this has given a big relief to the alienated people of the union territory .It is pertinent to mention that earlier Chief election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has stated umpteen times that the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted very soon so that people will chose the government of their choice .It will be after a long gap of six years that Jammu and Kashmir will go for assembly elections and the people will be in a position to elect the democratic government of their choice will be responsive to the aspirations and needs of the people and will wipe tears from their eyes and heal their wounds .The fact is that a peoples ,democratic government is definitely better than the presidents or governors rule as in the latter case there is a big gap between the government and the people. There is no connect between the government run by the LG and the people .The people of Jammu and Kashmir should feel pleasure and pride that they are the citizens of the largest democracy of the world and the assembly polls in the UT will be held very soon .In fact now the process of holding elections has been initiated as the election commission of India has asked the chief electoral officer of Jammu and Kashmir to update electoral rolls .As assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are also to be conducted for constituting a new house/assembly after the delimitation of the constituencies .It is in the fitness of things to mention that prime minister Narendra Modi has said the other day that assembly elections would be held soon in Jammu and Kashmir and the plans are underway to restore statehood to the union territory and this declaration of the PM is no less than the historical development for the beleaguered and alienated citizens of Jammu and Kashmir .Thus the people of J&K welcomed the statement of the prime minister for holding the assembly elections soon and also for planning to restore the statehood to the union territory .The people of Jammu and Kashmir feel elevated that the assembly polls will be held soon ,besides the snatched statehood will be restored to the people of the Union territory in near future and these two declarations are worthy of welcome and appreciation and the PM is worthy of commendation for his plain talk about holding the assembly polls soon .Modi emphasized the importance of enabling the people of Jammu and Kashmir to elect their representatives for manning legislative assembly .Buoyed by the overwhelming participation of the J&K people in the recently held Lok Sabha elections ,the commission has decided to conduct assembly polls very soon and has directed the chief election officer to update electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir UT with July first 2024 as the qualifying date .In an indication that assembly polls in J&K are imminent ,the Election Commission had on June 7 said that it has decided to accept applications for seeking allotment of common symbols from registered unrecognized parties in the union territory with immediate effect .Enthused by the large voter participation in Jammu and Kashmir in the just held Lok Sabha elections ,CEC Rajiv Kumar had recently told PTI that the poll panel will” very soon” initiate the process of holding assembly elections in union territory .It is worth mentioning that in December 2023,the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30,2024.Encouraged by the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir in the Lok Sabha polls ,the Election Commission will very soon initiate the process of holding assembly polls in the union territory ,Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said .He also told PTI Videos that the people of Jammu and Kashmir deserve their government .Responding to a question on the turnout in various seats of Jammu and Kashmir and if assembly polls could be held soon ,CEC ,Kumar said the poll panel is very encouraged by people’s participation in the parliamentary polls .”It is music to my ears .People-youth, women-are happily turning out in large numbers to vote .The roots of democracy are being further strengthened ,people are participating ,”he said.CEC also said ”They deserve their government .We will initiate that process very soon-very soon will the process of assembly elections be initiated. n fact the Election Commission has kick started the process of the initiation of assembly elections in three other states besides the elections in Jammu and Kashmir .In accordance with the directions of the honorable Supreme Court ,the Election Commission has initiated the assembly election process in Jammu and Kashmir so as to be followed with the long due elections well before the deadline of 30th September fixed by the top court .The statutory and independent body of Election Commission as well as the top executive of the country has said that the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted soon to give the people of the union territory the democratic right to elect their representatives to form the popular government .Jammu and Kashmir UT has been without a peoples that is the popular government for the last over six years and it has been reeling under the presidential /governors rule for pretty long time .The people of the Jammu and Kashmir UT have been denied their democratic right of adult franchise which would have enabled them to elect and chose their own government .Now seeing the large participation of the J&K People in the Lok Sabha elections ,the ECI as well as the centre government have been encouraged and thus they are favoring the assembly elections soon so that the alienated and beleaguered people will get the opportunity to cast their vote to elect the members of the legislative assembly which will ultimately pave way for the formation of the people’s government which will balm the wounds of the people and give them big relief. It will be the first time since the abrogation of article 370 on August 5,2019,that the assembly polls will be held to empower the alienated people to exercise their right to vote and elect the democratic government which will be responsive to aspirations and needs of the people and address their issues and problems.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist)
