Jammu election officer withdraws order to enrol outsiders as voters in upcoming Assembly election

The order had attracted criticisms from several political parties in J&K

Policemen stand guard as voters stand in a queue to cast their vote in Ganastan Sumbal Bandipora district of North Kashmir. Representative image. | Photo Credit: Nissar Ahmad

The Jammu election officer on Thursday withdrew an order directing tehsildars to enrol outsiders living in Jammu district for over a year as voters in the ongoing revision of electoral rolls in the Union Territory (UT) ahead of the Assembly polls.

A senior official from the Jammu administration told The Hindu that the order issued two days ago “stands withdrawn”. However, the details of the fresh order was not made public till late Thursday evening.

District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Avny Lavasa, had authorised tehsildars to issue certificate of residence to those residing in Jammu for more than a year “to facilitate their entry in the ongoing special summary revision of electoral rolls”.

“For categories like homeless Indian citizens, who are otherwise eligible to become electors but do not possess any documentary proof of ordinary residence, electoral registration officers shall designate an officer for field verification,” the order read.

The submission of the final electoral roll in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) has been fixed from October 31 to November 25, 2022. This will prepare the ground for the first ever Assembly elections in the UT of J&K, which was split into two UTs on August 5, 2019 and its special constitutional position struck down. J&K has been under governor’s rule since 2018 and saw the last Assembly elections in 2014.

The latest order on enrolling outsiders as voters attracted criticism from several political parties in J&K, including the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party, CPI(M), Democratic Azad Party, Congress, Peoples Conference and Mission Statehood.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, president of the four-party regional amalgam, Gupkar alliance, had recently nominated a 14-member committee of transregional political parties, including parties from Jammu like Shiv Sena and Mission Statehood, to chalk out a strategy to oppose any move to register outsiders as voters in J&K.

Former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has termed the move as “colonial settler project”. Ghulam Nabi Azad also made an appeal that “only local voters should be allowed”.

CPI(M) leader M.Y. Tarigami described it as the beginning of a wider plan to give voting rights to non-locals to reduce the weightage of locals and change electoral demographics.