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In the first major political exercise since the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution in August last year, which took away the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and turned it into a union territory. A separate union territory of Ladakh was also carved out.
J&K Chief Electoral Officer, Shailendra Kumar has announced that the panchayat polls for the union territory will be held from March 5 to March 20th in eight phases for Kashmir and four phases for Jammu.
The first phase of elections will be held on 5th March, second phase on 7th March, 3rd phase on 9th March, fourth phase on 12th March, fifth phase on 14th March, sixth phase on 16th March, seventh phase on 18th March and the 8th phase on 20th March.
Jammu and Kashmir is now governed by the Centre which has appointed GC Murmu as the Lieutenant Governor to look after the affairs of the union territory. The new status also means that law and order is now handled by the Centre.
The Model Code of Conduct is enforced and will be implementable in all the places where elections are being held.
“Union territory of Ladakh has not yet sent us request for conduct of elections so we’ve not included Ladakh. In any case, Ladakh is snow-bound and it is very cold out there. So it is not feasible to have election at this point of time,” the CEO said.
