Jammu and Kashmir Election Date: Election Commission announces polls in three phases from September 18.

Polling for the first phase will be held on September 18, the second phase on September 25, and the final phase on October 1. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced schedule to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections. Polls in the union territory will be conducted in three phases from September 18 and results will be declared on October 4. Polling for the first phase will be held on September 18, the second phase on September 25, and the final phase on October 1. The dates for the gazette notification for the three phases will be August 20, August 29, and September 9, respectively. The last dates for making nominations for the three phases will be August 27, September 5 and September 12 respectively. The announcement comes a week after Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, along with election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, visited the union territory. “We have seen long queues of people in Jammu and Kashmir during Lok Sabha polls, which showed they want to be part of the democratic process and preferred ballot over bullet,” said Rajiv Kumar during the briefing on Friday. Jammu and Kashmir has 87.09 lakh eligible electorates with an equal percentage of males and females, said the CEC, adding that the total number of polling stations will be over 11,800. Among the total voters, 44.46 lakh are male, 42.62 are female and 3.71 lakh are first time voters. Average voters per polling station is 735, showed the ECI data. Of the total 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, 74 are reserved for general, nine for Scheduled Tribes, and seven for Scheduled Castes. Earlier during the visit to the union territory, Rajiv Kumar said that the time has come to give the people of Jammu and Kashmir their government through elections. “We are committed to conducting elections at the earliest. We are confident that the people of J&K will give a befitting response to disruptive forces. No internal or external intervention will be allowed to derail the democratic process. We are fully prepared for it,” said CEC Kumar in a media briefing.