| ECI holds meeting in New Delhi, assess JK situation | | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Jan 29: The Election Commission of India (ECI) held a review meet in New Delhi to assess the Jammu and Kashmir political as well as security situation.
According to the sources, a team of ECI was planning to visit both Jammu and Kashmir divisions on January 27 and 28 for on spot assessment of the situation regarding the holding of assembly elections.
The team, headed by Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora, was to take a final call on whether to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State or defer the Assembly elections by few months. However, the sources confirmed the team has postponed its visit to the state due to unknown reasons. A source, however, said that the crucial meeting was held in New Delhi by the ECI where in the situation was assessed threadbare and it has been decided to put the decision of conducting polls on hold for the time being.
"The final call whether JK should witness early polls will be taken in a fortnight."
Though the entire mainstream camp, National Conference, Congress and the Peoples Conference besides independent candidates support early polls, PDP is the sole party that is not in the poll mode due to the mass rebellion party has faced of late.
The ECI, as per sources, have been told by the security agencies operating in Kashmir that there was no threat to the polls except some pockets in south Kashmir being sensitive "that could be taken care of by the security agencies as witnessed in recently held peaceful and successful ULB and Panchayat polls." "ECI has decided not to jump gun and instead widen the ambit of consultations before taking a final call," a top security official disclosed. |
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