Former Principal & District Sessions Judge Likely to Join PDP

SRINAGAR: Former Principal & District Sessions Judge Mohammad Ashraf Malik is set to join the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) tomorrow at party’s headquarter in Srinagar.

Quoting sources, the news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) reported that Malik is expected to be the PDP’s contesting candidate from the Dooru constituency in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district for the upcoming Assembly elections.

After the announcement of assembly polls in the Union territory that are to be held in three phases, many parties are seeing entry and exits of political leaders.

The polling in the UT will be held in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1, as per the Election Commission of India. The counting of the votes will take place on October 4.

There are a total of 90 assembly constituencies, of which 74 are general, nine are ST, and seven are SC. There are 87.09 lakh total electors, including 44.46 lakh are male, 42.62 lakh are female, 169 are transgender, 82,590 PwDs, 73943 are very senior citizens, 2660 are centenarians, 76092 are service electors, and 3.71 lakh are first-time voters.

Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of 10 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.
In December of last year, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to conclude the election process by September 30, 2024