New Delhi: Assembly elections to the newly created Jammu & Kashmir Union Territories, which will formally come into existence from October 31, will in all probability be held in 2021.
Sources claim that summer of 2021 was the earliest that Assembly polls could be held in the UT and till then, it would be directly governed by the Centre through the Governor.
The Centre wants to use this time to go in for a major development push in J&K, stabilise the law and order situation and provide sufficient time to the Election Commission to carry out the delimitation drive which would result in 90 seats in the new Assembly of the J&K Union Territory.
Senior officials at the Centre, who are monitoring J&K developments, claimed that bringing normalcy to J&K was the first priority for the government and the local administration rather than holding elections.
“Even elections to the new Assembly can be held only when the situation on the ground is totally normal and that in all probability would take some time. So we want to utilise the time between now and the summer of 2021 to work on multiple fronts particularly security and developments before elections can be held,’’ a senior home ministry official said.
Home secretary A.K. Bhalla held a meeting with top brass from different ministries earlier this week, directing them to chalk out a “timebound development plan for J&K.’’
