As part of the special summary revision with October 1, 2022 as the qualifying date, approximately 510,000 new voters have been added to the electoral rolls in J&K. The former state of J&K, which also included Ladakh, underwent its last revision in 2019, and there were an additional 180,000 voters.
According to the revised rolls for J&K published - the first after reorganisation of the erstwhile state and delimitation of its parliamentary and assembly constituencies - the UT now has 83,59,774 electors. J&K had 78,44,887 electors at the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, factoring in Ladakh, which became a separate UT in October 2019, the increase may be around 690,000, way less than the anticipated increase in J&K voters post-delimitation. Many parties claimed that there were attempts to swell the J&K voter list with "outsiders" after the then-J&K chief election officer forecast an additional 25,00,000 voters (though he later revised the figure). The final numbers should allay these worries, according to an EC official.
The Election Commission will be able to start thinking about holding assembly elections in J&K once the updated rolls are published. Elections may not be possible before March 2023, even though all parties and political figures in the UT have called for early elections.
For the first time in the history of J&K, more than 11,00,000 names were included in a single special summary revision period. A total of 301,961 claims of inclusion were from voters aged between 18 and 19 years. A total of 412,157 requests for deletion were received out of which 358,222 were accepted and 53,935 rejected.
Overall net addition of 770,000 electors in final rolls, i. e. more than 10% of the electors in draft rolls published on September 15, 2022, is the highest till date. Even in an election year, the increase is usually below 200,000.
