Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of India (ECI) Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday that “history is being made” in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that in places where there was once a call to boycott the democratic process, today people are standing in long queues outside polling stations. Amid voting in 26 assembly constituencies in the second phase of elections in the Union Territory on Wednesday, Kumar told reporters here that there is 100 percent CCTV coverage of this phase and anyone can see that youth, women, elderly are standing in queues to cast their vote and are waiting patiently for their turn.
“This is a festival of democracy. Voting is taking place in areas where voting did not take place earlier… In the past there were calls for obstruction and boycott… This (the current voting) is a proper tribute to democracy,” the chief election commissioner said in the presence of his fellow election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.
Praising the enthusiastic participation of voters in the electoral process, Kumar said history was being created in Jammu and Kashmir and its impact would be felt for a long time.
Let us tell you that the last elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were held in November-December 2014, when it had the status of a state. These elections were held for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. However, after the removal of Article 370 in 2019, the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was abolished and it was divided into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Since then, assembly elections have not been held there.
