The Indian government has told the country’s top court it is ready to hold elections in Indian-administered Kashmir “any time now”.
“The central government is ready for elections any time now. Till date, the updating of voter list was going on which is substantially over,” India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Thursday, adding that a call has to be taken by election officials on when to hold the polls.
Mehta is representing the federal government in the court as it hears a batch of petitions challenging New Delhi’s controversial 2019 move to revoke the special status of the region.
The last state assembly elections in Indian-administered Kashmir were held in 2014.
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was a member of a coalition government led by a pro-India political party, withdrew its support, forcing the last elected Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to resign.
This story was originally published in aljazeera.com. Read the full story here
