Politics spoiling the good work of intelligent officers is an undisputed fact and once again politics has come into the way of Shailendra Kumar the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (J&K CEO) over a simple letter issued for the routine practice of updating electoral role in the state. Ironically a letter issued from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to all Deputy Commissioners as District Election Officers (DEOs) for appointment of nodal officers for the assembly elections due in the state now was withdrawn just to dispel the impression that the CEO’s letter to district election officers was not the beginning of poll process for the assembly elections overdue in the state. Whether elections have to be conducted in June or at the fag end of the year in November as indicated in media reports, the fact remains that the election process for assembly elections in both the ways has to be started early to keep election machinery of the state government in a state of preparedness. Even naives know it that nodal officers are appointed to only update the electoral rolls for the reasons that elections authorities have to see the number of voters becoming eligible every month as someone who did not qualify as a voter for the parliamentary elections due to shortage of one or two months in attaining the age of 18 years can qualify as voter for the assembly elections after May this year. Media reporting that poll bugle was sounded with the circulation of a letter among district election officers for the appointment of nodal officers was misinterpreted and misunderstood by the people in the government who don’t want the conduct of early assembly elections in the state. By blowing out of proportions a simple news report about the preparations for assembly elections in the state, the hidden hands upset with the smooth working of the election department worked overtime to see that a simple letter issued for the simple purpose of updating electoral rolls is withdrawn in short time.
Seeing people at the helm taking lame excuses for deferment of assembly elections in mid summer months the most feasible time for any poll process in the state and forcing withdrawal of a simple letter of CEO issued to district election officers with the unquestionable intent of keeping the routine process of updating electoral rolls in motion ahead of the assembly elections shows that hidden hands are spoiling the good work of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) required for keeping the election machinery in a state of readiness for forthcoming assembly elections in the state.
People desperate to foil attempts of conducting early assembly elections in the state want to ensure that if today elections are deferred this time in view of the tourist season, holly month of Ramadan and commencement of annual amaranth yatra ,the elections can be further deferred in November by offering the explanations avout the difficulties faced in transporting the election material to inaccessible hilly areas in all the three regions of the state as this is the time when harshest period of winter begins in November in Kashmir and Ladhak regions along with hilly areas of Doda and Bhaderwah in Jammu region . Seeing people at the helm taking lame excuses for deferment of assembly elections in mid summer months the most feasible time for any poll process in the state and forcing withdrawal of a simple letter of CEO issued to district election officers with the unquestionable intent of keeping the routine process of updating electoral rolls in motion ahead of the assembly elections shows that hidden hands are spoiling the good work of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) required for keeping the election machinery in a state of readiness for forthcoming assembly elections in the state.
