Jammu and Kashmir is preparing for the panchayat elections after a gap of seven years in April-May this year, officials said.
This will be another step to strengthen democracy at the grassroots; sources said electoral rolls for the elections were published on January 20.
In a key step towards conducting the elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) of the Union Territory has begun procurement of essential election materials.
The SEC is in the process of acquiring nearly 40,000 voting compartments and 64 other required items.
The deadline for finalising the procurement contract is March 11, with the supply expected within a month thereafter.
“J&K currently has a total of 38,800 polling stations, with 18,700 located in the Jammu division and 20,100 in the Kashmir division."
"The last panchayat elections in J&K were held in 2018, and with the previous panchayat bodies having completed their tenure in 2023,” an official said, as per local sources.
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The panchayat elections, like the assembly polls, hold distinctive significance as they are also taking place nearly 7 years after and for the first time since Article 370 was abrogated by the centre in August 2019,” they added.
Earlier, the assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in the UT were successfully conducted by the Election Commission of India in 2024.
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