All issues of KPs to be addressed during exercise
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 16: A major voter enrollment drive is soon going to be launched in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the Special Summary Revision (SSR) while pre-revision exercise to educate and aware the young voters has already been initiated by office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
The Election Department also proposed to address all issues of Kashmiri migrant voters to ensure that they don’t have any complaints about missing and wrong names with a view to increase their voting percentage in future elections.
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Newly appointed CEO Sanjeev Verma, in an informal chat with media persons this afternoon, said the voter enrollment exercise will start after issuance of notification by the Election Commission of India but they have already initiated pre-revision exercise with launch of SVEEP vehicles.
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“The cut-off date for voter enrollment will be January 1, 2026 i.e. all those turning 18 on the given date or prior to it will be eligible for registration as new voters,” Verma, who was flanked by other senior officers of the Election Department in J&K, said.
He said the voter enrollment drive will cover all such institutions in a big way where new electorates can be registered like educational institutions including colleges, higher secondary schools and other such places. He added that their officials will not only aware and educate the youths but also brief them on how to get enrolled as new voters.
“This will be done to ensure that there is maximum enrollment and no eligible voter is left out,” the CEO said, adding the electoral rolls will be purified during the process with wrong entries, change of addresses corrected and other necessary changes will be made.
Generally, the Special Summary Revision exercise by the Election Commission of India starts on September 1 and final electoral rolls are published in first week of January next. However, the Commission had to issue notification to this effect and timing can vary.
On the issue of two vacant Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, the CEO said elections to them will be held as per the protocol.
Nagrota and Budgam Assembly seats are vacant since October-November last year. Budgam seat was vacated by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah while retaining Ganderbal while Nagrota constituency fell vacant following demise of BJP stalwart Devender Singh Rana.
While there was no official confirmation, reports indicated that by-election to two Assembly seats can be held along with Bihar Assembly polls due to be held in October this year.
On Kashmiri migrant voters, another senior officer said special camps for them would be held not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore to resolve their all issues and correct their names, addresses etc to ensure their maximum participation in future elections.
Generally, there has been very less turnout of Kashmir migrant voters in Parliament and Assembly elections which earlier was attributed to cumbersome process like M Forms which was done away with by the Commission last year.
The senior officer said when the Kashmiri migrants fill their forms they can see to it that it has been accurately filled which will ensure that they are eligible to cast their votes and don’t face any issues on the day of polling.
They said the Election Commission has developed software and is using Artificial Intelligence to delete duplicate entries.
“If the people who have registered themselves as voters in Jammu and Kashmir after becoming domiciles, their names would get automatically deleted from the electoral lists in their home States,” they added.
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