Jammu:

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will start the party’s J&K election campaign on Wednesday as he is scheduled to address two election rallies in the union territory.

Rahul Gandhi will address one rally each in Jammu and Kashmir for the first phase of the 3-phased Assembly elections.

Congress sources said that a special plane carrying Rahul Gandhi will land at Jammu airport at 10 a.m.

“From the airport, Rahul Gandhi will take a helicopter for Sangaldan in Ramban district where he will address a Congress rally in support of the party candidate, Vikar Rasool Wani around 11 a.m.

Sangaldan forms part of the Banihal Assembly constituency in the Ramban district of the Jammu division.

Unable to reach an agreement on seat-sharing on the Banihal seat, both Congress and the National Conference (NC) have fielded candidates from there.

Party general secretary, Bharatsinh Solanki and state Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra will accompany Rahul Gandhi during the daylong campaign.

From Sangaldan, Gandhi will move to the Dooru Assembly constituency in the Anantnag district of Kashmir.

“At 12.30 p.m., Rahulji will address a Congress rally in Dooru Assembly constituency in favour of party candidate, G.A.Mir. These two rallies are the start of a series of Congress star campaigners seeking support for the party candidates. Later, Sonia Gandhiji, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are among the 40 Congress star campaigners in J&K, will also campaign for the party candidates”, party sources said.

Three former JKPCC presidents, Vikar Rasool Wani, G.A.Mir and Peerzada Sayeed are fighting elections in the first phase of J&K elections.

Voting for the first phase takes place on September 18.

Congress and NC have announced a pre-poll alliance according to which the NC will fight on 52 seats and the Congress on 31 seats. Two seats, one for CPI(M) and one for Panthers party have been left by the alliance.

In five seats of Nagrota, Bhaderwah, Banihal and Doda in the Jammu division and Sopore in the Kashmir division both parties will field candidates against each other in what the alliance calls ‘a friendly contest’.

J&K has 90 Assembly seats, 47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu. Out of these, nine seats are reserved for ST seats and seven are reserved for SC.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Srinagar:

The Election Commission of India has confirmed that it will visit Jammu and Kashmir next week to review preparations for elections. The move is being seen as an indication that the Assembly elections in the Union Territory will be held before the deadline of September 30 set by the Supreme Court.

The full commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, will meet officials of the administration as well as representatives of political parties in Srinagar and Jammu during the visit, which will take place from August 8 to 10, it was announced on Friday. 

Sources said the commission is expected to announce the Assembly polls sometime after  August 15 to meet the September 30 deadline. 

In December last year, while delivering its verdict on Article 370, a five-judge Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had directed the poll body to hold Assembly elections in the Union Territory by September 30. It had also asked the Centre to restore statehood at the earliest.

On Wednesday, the Commission had asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to transfer officials posted in their home districts as well as those connected with the election process who will be completing a three-year tenure on or before September 30.

Similar directions had been given to the chief secretaries of Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where elections are due later this year.

Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government for over six years and the last Assembly elections were held in December 2014.

Next week, Jammu and Kashmir will also complete five years as a Union Territory. On August 5, 2019, the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories and its special status under Article 370 was removed. Since then, Jammu and Kashmir has been administered by the lieutenant governor.

The Centre has also recently amended the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, giving sweeping powers to the lieutenant governor in the Union Territory. The amendments are in line with the Delhi Union Territory model, where the elected government has little authority over bureaucracy and many powers are vested in the Lieutenant Governor.

Opposition parties have reacted strongly to the Centre’s move and termed it “anti-democratic”. They allege that giving sweeping powers to the LG will make the elected government a rubber stamp.

During his visit to Srinagar in June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that Assembly elections would be held in Jammu and Kashmir soon, and statehood would also be restored.