The Election Commission of India has announced the dates for the general elections to the legislative assemblies for Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana. Addressing the media persons on Friday at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner announced that the polling in the 90 Assembly Constituencies spread over the 20 districts in J&K will be held in three phases.

In Phase-I, 24 ACs will go for polling on 18th September 2024; in the Phase-III, 26 Acs will vote on 25th September; and the remaining 40 ACs will vote on 1st October in the final phase.

The date of counting is scheduled for 4th October 2024.

There are a total 87.09 lakh electors in J&K including 44.46 lakh make and 42.62 lakh female. 20.7 lakh voters are in the age group of 20-29, of which, 3.71 lakh are first time voters, the Commission informed.

In December 2023, the Supreme Court of India had directed the Government of India to expedite the process to restore statehood to J&K and directed the ECI to hold elections in the Union Territory by 30th September 2024.

In Haryana, polling in all 90 Assembly Constituencies across the State’s 22 districts will be conducted on 1st October 2024 while the counting date will be same as J&K, 4th October 2024. As per the draft roll published on 20th August 2024, there are 2.01 crore electors in Haryana of which 1.06 crore and male and 0.95 crore are female. 40.95 lakh voters are in the age group of 20-29 and 4.52 lakh are first time voters.