The upcoming general election is the first in J&K since the Modi government’s controversial decision in August 2019 to revoke its autonomy and strip it of its statehood.
Credit: Facebook/J&K National Conference
On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which had guaranteed autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The state was bifurcated into two federally-governed union territories (UTs): Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and Ladakh.
The upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, is the first since the Modi government made this unilateral and controversial decision.
Although elections to the J&K assembly are long overdue and the Supreme Court of India mandated the conduct of these elections by September this year, assembly elections will not be held now. On Friday, Modi assured that the assembly elections would be conducted soon and statehood would be restored.
J&K and Ladakh have a total of six seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha (two MPs are nominated). Voting in the two UTs will be conducted in five phases, in Udhampur on April 19, Jammu on April 26, Anantnag-Rajouri on May 7, Srinagar on May 13, and ending in Baramulla and Ladakh on May 20. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
This story was originally published in thediplomat.com. Read the full story here.