Kashmir News: J-K assembly polls soon after Lok Sabha Election 2024? Here's what CEC said after record Baramulla turnout

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar has signaled that the record voter turnout in the Srinagar and Baramulla Lok Sabha constituencies in the Lok Sabha poll 2024 may prompt assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) at ‘the earliest.’ 

“The highly successful conduct of polls with impressive turnout in Srinagar and Baramulla gives the Election Commission the confidence to hold Assembly polls in J&K at the earliest," CEC Kumar told the Indian Express on Monday.

Srinagar witnessed a record 38 percent voterturnout in the May 13 polling. This marked the highestvoting percentage in the constituency since the 1996 general elections, when 41 percent of voters exercised their franchise.

Similarly, the Baramulla parliamentary constituency recorded a turnout during the polling in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024on May 20. This is the highest since the when the seat in north Kashmir saw about 61 percent voter turnout.

, without an elected government since 2018, is currently administered by the Centre's appointee Lieutenant Governor (L-G). In December last year, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the Assembly polls in the UT by September 2024.

CEC Kumar's signal could mean assembly elections in the erstwhile state soon after the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. 

Top (BJP) leaders hailed the ‘encouraging’ voter turnout in Kashmir seats, attributing it to the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. However, leaders from the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – the two regional parties - have said that the high voter turnout is against the decision of August 5, 2019. 

The saffron party has also candidates in any of Kashmir's three parliamentary