What is the number of voters in Jammu province?

It is hoped that J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer would clear all the cobwebs of confusion

December 1, 2022

Registration of 11 lakh new voters in J&K between 1999 and 2004 intriguing

On November 25, the office of J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer published the final electoral rolls for J&K. According to the statistics, 11,28,672 names were included in the final electoral rolls. A report claimed that “it was for the first time in the history of J&K that more than 11 lakh new names were included in a single Special Summary Revision period”. The statistics as published in the press further suggested that “a total of 4,12,157 requests for deletion were received, out of which 3,58,222 were accepted and 53,935 rejected”.

“The final electoral rolls have 83,59,771 electors. Out of them, 42,91,687 are male voters, 40,67,900 female voters, and 184 are Third Gender…There has been a net increase of 7,72,872 voters in the final electoral rolls…In 2019, when the general elections were held, the number of electors in J&K was 75.86 lakh…,” the data as released by the J&K Election Department suggested.

Now that the J&K Election office has made public the final electoral rolls, it’s also time for it to reveal”

The number of total voters in Jammu province, as against the number of total voters in Kashmir.
Make public the number of requests made in Jammu province for the deletion of names from the electoral rolls as well as the number of requests made in Kashmir for the deletion of names from the electoral rolls.

The J&K election office would also do well to make public the district-wise statistics so that the people of each district become aware of their exact status. All this is a must to set the record straight. Leave aside for the moment the loud clamour in Jammu that sought delimitation of the Assembly constituencies in J&K based on the latest fair census figures. The general view in Jammu province is that the population of Jammu province is equal to Kashmir, if not more and that Jammu province would get a minimum of 50 Assembly segments, as against 43 recommended by the new delimitation commission, if delimitation is done on the basis of latest population figures.

Not just this, the J&K election office also needs to explain and tell the people the circumstances under which 11 lakh new names were included in the electoral rolls in just five years between 1999 (when the Valley-based National Conference and its president Farooq Abdullah were at the helm of affairs in J&K) and 2004 (when People’s Democratic Party’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Sonia’s Congress were ruling the state). The increase in the number of voters in J&K by 11 lakh in a span of five years appears quite intriguing.

The J&K election office has to set the record straight as far as the inclusion of 11 lakh new names in the electoral rolls between 1999 and 2004 is concerned. Why? Because only 6.55 lakh new voters were included in the electoral rolls between 1984 and 1989; 5.62 lakh new voters registered between 1996 and 1999; 3.80 lakh new voters included in electoral rolls between 2004 and 2009; 4.88 lakh new voters included in electoral rolls between 2009 and 2014; and 6.33 lakh new voters registered between 2014 and 2019.

What do the statistics relating to the periods 1984-1999 and 2004-2019 and the statistics relating to the period 1999-2004 indicate? These clearly indicate something intriguing and the J&K election office alone can tell the nation as to what led to the increase in the number of voters by 11 lakh during 1999-2004.

It is hoped that the J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer would clear all the cobwebs of confusion and make the people of J&K UT in general and the ignored, marginalized and taken-for-granted people of Jammu province in particular.

In the meantime, all the Kashmiri parties are examining the final electoral rolls to find if the name(s) of any non-Kashmiri(s) has/ have been included in the said rolls. Reports from Kashmir suggest that there are people who have been expressing surprise over the inclusion of over 11 lakh names in the electoral rolls, saying “11 lakh is a huge figure”.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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