It will be almost ten years before the legislative assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir. The last assembly elections were held in November-December 2014, which led to the formation of a post-poll coalition government of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the People’s Democratic Party

Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in 2019.

So much has changed in Jammu and Kashmir since the last assembly elections held ten years ago. The state is no longer a state but has been downgraded to a union territory. Besides, a large part of the Ladakh region has been separated and carved into a separate union territory.

Omar Abdullah has maintained that he will not participate in assembly elections as long as Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) remains a Union Territory (UT).

Among the 100 candidates in the fray, 89 lost their security deposits, with Ghulam Nabi Azad’s DPAP candidates collectively managing to secure only 12.79 per cent vote share in five seats.

The proxy parties performed poorly in their constituencies, with Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Manhas receiving only 13.86 per cent of the votes Anantnag, and DPAP’s Mohammad Saleem Paray securing just 2.49 per cent. In Srinagar..

Voters have spoken and in a democracy that’s all that matters, says Omar Abdullah. Won’t be deterred from my path, Mehbooba Mufti vows

Election Commission of India said it is ready to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the Union Territory had its highest voter participation in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in four decades. 

The last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were conducted in 2014 when the BJP and PDP formed a coalition government. The coalition government crumbled when the BJP withdrew its support to the PDP in 2018.

Thirty-two per cent polling by Kashmiri migrants was registered for the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency, election officials have said.

Former sarpanch Aijaz Ahmed Sheikh was killed in Shopian’s Heerapora and a couple from Jaipur were injured in an attack in Anantnag’s Pahalgam.

‘The BJP applauds the decision made by Jamaat-e-Islami J&K yesterday. It is a good step,’ senior party leader Sunil Sharma told a media gathering at Srinagar on Thursday.