Jammu and Kashmir goes to the polls. India has announced plans for local elections, considered crucial by observers, scheduled to begin on September 18. They are the first since 2014, the first since the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided in August 2019 to cancel the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir.
The elections will be held in three phases, in 90 constituencies, to end on October 1, after the first round on September 18 and the second on September 25. According to official data, there are about 8.7 million eligible voters to vote to elect a local executive (with very limited autonomy).
The announcement comes after the Indian Supreme Court last December upheld the legitimacy of the Modi government's decision to revoke the special status for Indian-administered Kashmir, with a Muslim-majority population, to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution, and ordered the calling of elections by 30 September.
Analysts and local politicians, highlights the BBC, point out how in Jammu and Kashmir there is still strong anger against Modi's BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) party.
The entire Kashmir region is at the center of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan that has been going on since 1947. The two countries have fought over Kashmir two of the three wars that have broken out since their birth as independent states.
