J&K CEO convenes poll meeting

SRINAGAR: J&K chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar conducted a meeting with representatives of all parties regarding the conduct of bypolls to vacant panchayat and municipal seats in coming weeks.
“Panchayat byelections will be conducted with ballots on non-party basis, whereas municipal elections will be conducted on party basis with EVMs,” Kumar told party representatives.
He further said that the updation of the panchayat electoral rolls is under process, and as far as the updation of municipal electoral rolls is concerned, a special summary revision is being conducted with the qualifying date as January 1, 2020.
Several issues were raised by the representatives of political parties including deferment of the elections due to Covid-19, provision of adequate security as per actual threat perception, and the need of a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of elections. The CEO said elections cannot be indefinitely deferred as the Centre has taken the decision on the analogy of assembly polls being conducted after observing all Covid SOPs.
Among the prominent attendees were Rama Kant Khajuria of Congress, Harsh Dev Singh of J&K National Panthers Party and Narender Singh Raina of PDP.