ECI holds meeting with J&K's top officials in Srinagar

Srinagar, Aug 9 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) team on Friday held a meeting in J&K’s Srinagar city with the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police (DGP) and administrative secretaries to discuss preparedness for the legislative Assembly elections in the union territory.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and two Election Commissioners, Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu met at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here with Chief Secretary Atul Dulloo and DGP R.R. Swain.

The meeting was also attended by different administrative secretaries of the UT. The ECI team took feedback from the senior civil and police officers regarding the preparedness for the ensuing Assembly polls.

The ECI team arrived here on Thursday. The first meeting was held by the Commission with the representatives of various national and regional political parties.

During their interaction with the ECI team, representatives of various political parties told the Commission that the Assembly elections should be held in J&K without any further delay.

The second meeting by the ECI team was held with the deputy commissioners and SSPs of different districts to take their feedback on the ensuing poll process. In the evening, the ECI team met the chief electoral officer (CEO) of J&K, P.K.Pole and the chief nodal officer for the UT.

The team will be in Jammu later in the day to continue its interaction with various stakeholders there.

The ECI will hold a press conference at 2.30 p.m. in Jammu before concluding its two-day visit to J&K.

The UT has been without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the PDP-BJP coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti.

The state was brought under the Lt. Governor’s rule and the Assembly was later dissolved.

On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated and the state was divided into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh.

The abrogation of Article 370 was upheld by a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court which also passed directions that Assembly elections should be held by September 30, 2024, in J&K.