EC to update voters' list in poll-bound states, including Jammu and Kashmir

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Thursday that assembly elections would be held soon in Jammu and Kashmir and plans are underway to restore statehood to the UT in the near future

The Election Commission (EC) has started updating electoral rolls for Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir (J-K), setting the stage to conduct Assembly elections in the three states and in the union territory (UT).

July 1, 2024 will be the qualifying date for roll updation, while final electoral rolls will be published on August 20, the poll panel said on Friday.

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It comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Sri Nagar that preparation to hold elections in J-K has begun. He also said that a plan to restore statehood of J-K was also underway.

The EC said it has been enthused by the “huge participation of the people of J&K in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections”.  The UT had recorded 58 per cent voter turnout.  

Its assembly was dissolved in 2018.

The existing legislative assembly in Haryana expires on November 3, in Maharashtra on November 26 and in Jharkhand on January 5, 2026.

As for J&K, in December, the Supreme Court had asked the EC to conduct polls by September 30.

Following a delimitation exercise, the number of assembly seats in J&K has increased from 83 to 90.

The EC also noted that its effort to set up polling booths at locations convenient to electors in high-rise buildings, group housing societies and slum dwelling clusters in urban areas saw “a substantially high percentage of voting turnout”, compared to those set up apart from the residential societies.

The panel has asked its officials to conduct an extensive survey to set up polling booths in high-rises and group housing societies, wherever possible.