An alliance of political parties from Kashmir is holding an all-party meeting to discuss the issue of inclusion of non-local voters in the revised electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir. The political parties are concerned that the inclusion of 2.5 million new voters in the Muslim-majority region will permanently disenfranchise Kashmiris.
The National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the two main Kashmiri outfits, claimed the administration has not addressed their main concern on whether “outsiders” ordinarily residing in Jammu and Kashmir will be allowed to enrol as voters.
The Indian government’s decision to allow voting rights to any Indian citizen living temporarily in Indian-administered Kashmir has again kindled anger and fears of yet another attempt by the Hindu nationalist government to change the demography of its only Muslim-majority region.
'Massive changes' on voter list expected
“The special summary revision of electoral rolls is taking place for the first time after January 1, 2019 and so we are expecting massive changes in the voter list given the fact that a large number of youngsters have attained the age of 18 over the past three years,” said chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar.
Kashmiris have long accused Modi's government of trying to alter Kashmir's demographics by encouraging Hindu migration to the Muslim-majority region.
Three years back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the region of its special status by abrogating the decades-old law and dividing the region into two federally controlled territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Peoples Democratic Party @jkpdp Workers today held a strong protest march in Jammu against @ECISVEEP for inclusion of non-local voters in the electoral rolls of Jammu and Kashmir.@MehboobaMufti pic.twitter.com/IrDHx4v6Kc
— Choudhary Parvez waffa (@ParvezWaffa) August 22, 2022
The government also introduced a controversial domicile law that grants citizenship rights to every Indian living in the region for more than 15 years. New laws making every Indian citizen eligible to buy land in the region were also passed.
“This (electoral rolls) is yet another design to dispossess people of J&K,” said PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
“This move will only give power to outsiders and genuine Kashmiris will have to beg to maintain to stay and vote in a state that belongs to them,” Riyaz Khan, a student told RFI.
In May this year, Modi’s government announced a new electoral map for the region which the residents said was aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering them.
Redrawing boundaries
The new map increased the number of assembly seats in the Hindu-majority Jammu area by six from 37 to 43, while the Muslim-majority Kashmir part of the region got just one more constituency to 47 in place of 46.
Many criticised the move and maintained it was in favour of the Hindu-majority Jammu and accused the government of violating the universal criteria of considering the population of the area in drawing electoral seats.
Following the brouhaha, the government issued a clarification, saying the reports of a likely addition of over 2.5 million voters after the summary revision of electoral rolls is a "misrepresentation of facts by vested interests”.
However, it did not clarify its position on who were the voters to be included in the electoral rolls.
According to the clarification given by the government, Kashmiri migrants will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi.
This revision comes as Jammu and Kashmir is expected to have an election in 2023, with the union territory remaining without a government for over four years.
The ongoing exercise to complete the special summary revision of electoral rolls will end by 25 November.
