Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 19: As the Election Commission has set into motion the biggest exercise for summary revision of electoral rolls ahead of the Parliament elections, the electorates of Jammu and Kashmir were all set to touch 7 million when the final rolls were published and made public on January 6, 2014.
Number of Assembly constituencies having voters in excess to one lakh was also set to touch a dozen. Presently 10 Assembly segments in the State have more than one lakh electorates, nine of which fall in Jammu region and only one in Kashmir region.
Official sources told the Excelsior that 61 Election Returning Officers (EROs) in the rank of Assistant Commissioners (ACs), Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) and Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) and 9460 Booth Level Officers (BLOs)—the teachers and clerical staff of the Government Departments have been pressed into service to make the biggest ever electoral exercise a success.
The summary revision that started on September 16 would continue for one month till October 15. The Election Commission would publish final rolls on January 6, 2014.
The cut off date for induction as new voters has been kept as January 1, 2014 by which the youth should turn 18 years old.
“Anyone turning 18 by or before January 1, 2014 can enroll himself as the voter for Parliament and Assembly elections,’’ sources said.
According to official figures, there were 68,39,055 electorates in the States including 35,90,086 male and 32,48,969 females when the fresh exercise for summary revision of electoral rolls was taken up on September 16.
“The number would easily touch 7 million,’’ sources anticipated.
During the summary revision, apart from enrollment of new voters, the people can also apply for corrections and deletion of dead voters with the BLOs.
As per the available figures, out of 87 Assembly constituencies in the State, there were 10 segments, which have voters in excess to one lakh including nine in Jammu region and only one in Kashmir.
Gandhi Nagar Assembly segment in Jammu district has highest number of 1,60,777 votes followed by Jammu West in the same district with 1,51,653 electorates.
Seven other segments in Jammu district with over one lakh votes are Reasi (1,00,391 voters), Udhampur (1,08,242 votes), Vijaypur (1,02,594), Hiranagar (1,03,734 electorates), Rajouri (1,04,800 voters), Ramnagar (1,05, 461 electorates) and Kathua (1,16,597 votes).
Lone Assembly constituency in Kashmir region, which has one lakh plus voters was Batmaloo in Srinagar district with 1,14,419 voters.
Sources said Poonch and Bhaderwah Assembly segments have 93,990 and Bhaderwah 97,576 electorates. Both these Assembly constituencies were likely to join the category of one lakh electorates after the summary revision taking number of such constituencies in Jammu region to nine. However, there was no Assembly segment in Kashmir region, which would touch the figure of one lakh votes.
“This was due to the fact that Kashmir has been divided into 46 Assembly constituencies while Jammu has only 37 seats,’’ the political observers said. Ladakh region has four seats.
Jammu district has highest number of 9,67,618 votes while Srinagar district has 5,93,210 electorates.
Nobra Assembly segment in Leh district has minimum number of 12,468 votes followed by Gurez in Bandipora district, which has only 16,541 electorates. Zanskar Assembly constituency in Kargil district has only 20,536 voters while Karnah segment in Kupwara district has just 29,587 votes.
Bani Assembly segment in Kathua district with 38,582 electorates, Gool-Arnas and Gulabgarh Assembly constituencies in Reasi district with 56,570 and 60,625 voters respectively were the three constituencies in Jammu region with minimum votes.
The political observers were of the view that in the absence of delimitation of Assembly constituencies, which has been barred by an act of Legislature till 2026, there was vast variation of votes, which was evident from the fact that nine Assembly segments in Jammu region had one lakh plus votes while only one constituency in Kashmir region had electorates more than one lakh.
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