Cutting across party lines, all political parties met with the visiting Election Commission of India (ECI) in Srinagar on Thursday and called for immediate Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, besides seeking a level playing field in the polls.

The ECI team, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, arrived in Srinagar on Thursday morning and met with representatives of registered political parties, including the National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, CPI(M), and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP).

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The ECI delegation, comprising election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu, is on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review preparedness for the Assembly polls and gather feedback from political parties. The Supreme Court of India has set a deadline for holding the elections in Jammu and Kashmir before 30 September.

Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of ten years as the last assembly election was held in 2014. The PDP-BJP coalition government fell in June 2018 when the latter withdrew support to the then chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti.

Speaking to reporters after separate party-wise meetings with the poll panel’s delegation, political leaders expressed unanimous support for immediate holding of Assembly elections in the Union Territory (UT). They also called for ensuring a level playing field in the polls to restore democracy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit has called for the elections to be held within the Supreme Court’s deadline, party spokesman RS Pathania said.

“We are hopeful that Jammu Kashmir will soon have a democratic government. I am optimistic that the notification will be released shortly,” Pathania said.

NC’s Kashmir provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani, who led a five-member party delegation, said the NC has demanded that the people of J&K now want their own government. We told the EC that you came here many times and we have met with you and it is now time for a definite decision on this matter,” he told reporters.

“We pointed out that there has been no government in J&K since 2018 and that Assembly elections have not taken place for the last 10 years,” Wani said and added that the NC told the EC that a Lieutenant Governor, his sole adviser, and a few bureaucrats cannot run the UT.

“We told the EC that this is a matter of their credibility. Either you strengthen the voices opposing elections or uphold their credibility by conducting the elections,” Wani said, adding that the response from the ECI was positive.

Congress leader GN Monga said that democracy should flourish in Jammu and Kashmir. “We call ourselves the mother of democracy, yet the people of J&K have been without elections for many years. Democracy should flourish here, and elections should be held soon,” he told reporters.

Monga said, “We told them that there is discrimination in the security provided to between parties. We appealed that all parties should be weighed in the same scale.”

PDP leader Khurshid Alam, a member of the party’s delegation that met with the EC, said the people of J&K should have the right to elect their own government. “What justification is there for not holding polls when the government claims the situation has improved, when one crore tourists visited, and when the parliamentary elections and Amarnath yatra were conducted without any untoward incidents,” he asked.

“We do not have personal differences with the LG, but as a political appointee, we have concerns that his decisions may be biased. Therefore, we requested the EC to ensure that the government is sanitised to provide a level playing field without any bias,” he added.

The EC will also meet with the Chief Secretary, DGP, and other officials handling law and order.

The team will visit Jammu on Friday to meet with security agencies and hold a press conference.