Except for the poll date, there are no changes in any part of the schedule, officials said.
In an official communication, the EC said that various representations were received from different political parties of Jammu and Kashmir for shifting the date of election to the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency.
These parties had cited various logistic, communication and natural barriers of connectivity turning out as a hindrance in campaigning which in turn amounted to a lack of fair opportunities for the contesting candidates in the parliamentary constituency. “The Commission, after considering a report from UT administration as well as analysing the ground situation prevailing in the said constituency, has decided under Section 56 of Representation of People Act, 1951, to revise the date of poll” from May 7 to May 25, it said.
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The Election Commission officials said the Commission has only revised the poll date for the Lok Sabha seat and all statutory processes including nomination, scrutiny and withdrawal are already over with 20 contesting candidates. The leaders, who had petitioned the EC, included Jammu and Kashmir BJP unit chief Ravinder Raina, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari, People’s Conference leader Imran Ansari and others. The Election Commission had asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to immediately submit a detailed report on road conditions, weather and accessibility to the region which covers parts of South Kashmir and areas in Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region. Former chief ministers of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah (National Conference) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) had urged the Election Commission last week not to postpone polls.
The former chief ministers made the appeal after the EC sought a report from Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and the Chief Electoral Officer on representations submitted by some parties and three candidates seeking rescheduling of elections in the constituency due to adverse weather conditions.
“The demand for postponement is not from all parties. The weird thing is that some of the people who have written to the EC are not contesting. If I write to the EC about constituencies in Tamil Nadu etc. will they take notice,” Abdullah had said.
Mehbooba Mufti had said,”They all have ganged up against me because they do not want to see me in Parliament. The people, cutting across religious and party lines, are coming forward in my support and they are, therefore, using the Election Commission to defer and rig the elections”.
The PDP leader said she travelled through the Mughal road which was recently opened for traffic.
Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary seat, which was reshaped on the recommendations of the delimitation commission in 2022, covers 18 assembly segments across three districts of Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam in south Kashmir and two border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, barring one assembly constituency, in Jammu region.
The two regions on either side of Pir Panjal are connected through the Mughal Road which usually remains closed during winter months owing to heavy snowfall, especially in the Peer Ki Gali and adjoining areas.
The road was recently cleared for one-way traffic after a hectic snow clearance operation but fresh snowfall forced closure of the traffic on the road on April 27.
There are 18,30,294 eligible voters including 9,30,379 males and 8,99,888 females in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency and they will decide the fate of Mehbooba Altaf.
Other prominent candidates in the fray include DPAP’s Mohammad Saleem Parray and Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Manhas.
BJP has not fielded any candidate and is contemplating to extend support to one of the contestants not linked to the Congress, NC and PDP.
The Lok Sabha seat will have 2,338 polling stations including 2113 in rural areas and 225 in urban.
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