India announces Kashmir polls after a 10-year hiatus

India announces Kashmir polls after a 10-year hiatus

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India has announced plans to hold crucial regional elections in the disputed Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir from September 18.

The election is the first in almost a decade – and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the region’s special status in 2019.

The three-phase polling in 90 constituencies will conclude on October 1 and counting is scheduled for October 4.

About 8.7 million people, including 4.26 million women, will be eligible to vote, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said.

Assembly elections are usually held after five years, but political uncertainty has delayed voting.

“After a long gap, there should be elections and they will be held in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mr Kumar told a press conference in Delhi on Friday.

He added that Kashmir voted “bullet after bullet” – as the region saw a historic voter turnout of 58.46 percent in the recently held parliamentary elections, a 30-point jump from the voter turnout in the 2019 general elections.

The commission later posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the long queues of voters during the general elections were “proof of the will and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in writing their future”.

Friday’s announcement comes months after India’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision to scrap Article 370 of the constitution, which granted the region important freedoms. The court also ordered that the general assembly elections be held before the 30th of September.

While removing the special status of Kashmir, the government has divided the country of more than 12 million people into two federally administered territories – Ladakh; and Jammu and Kashmir.

The withdrawal was one of the poll promises made by Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 and the decision has made the party very unpopular in the state.

In March, the prime minister visited the region for the first time since 2019 and said he was “working hard to win your hearts”. He also announced projects worth 64bn rupees ($774m; £607m) to support local agriculture and tourism.

But analysts and local politicians say anger against the BJP remains.

The Himalayan region was divided after India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947. The two nuclear-armed states both claim the region as a whole and have fought two wars and moderate conflicts over it in the decades since.

An armed insurgency against the Delhi government in the Indian-controlled region since 1989 has killed tens of thousands of people and there are many militants in the area.

Delhi accuses Islamabad of harboring militants and disrupting peace in the region, a charge Pakistan denies.

Kashmir continues to be plagued by incidents of violence. The latest explosion in combat activity – which seems to have had he left the village of Kashmir in the calm state of Jammu – is a particular cause for concern.

In June, nine Hindus were killed and scores injured after terrorists opened fire on a bus in Reasi – where the bridge is located – one of the deadliest military attacks in recent years. There were several other attacks on the army and civilians.

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