Between September 18 and October 1, 2024, Jammu & Kashmir will see its first Assembly elections in five years — a first since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Elections to J&K’s 90 Assembly seats, being held along with the Haryana Assembly polls, are similar to the 1962 Assembly polls in the state-turned-union territory. The 1962 polls were held simultaneously with Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections across the country between February and April that year. Despite being J&K’s third elections since Independence, the 1962 polls were the first to be conducted there by the Election Commission of India (EC).
Before 1962, the EC was not responsible for conducting the J&K Assembly polls in 1957 or those for the Constituent Assembly (a body of representatives elected to formulate the Constitution of J&K) in 1951. On November 17, 1956, the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of J&K under the Constitution of India. This decision came into effect on January 26, 1957, even as preparations for general elections across India were on. Though the J&K Assembly polls were also held in 1957, as per the state Constitution, they were overseen by the Election Commissioner appointed by the Sadr-i-Riyasat (President of the state). On January 26, 1960, the state Constitution was amended to hand over election work to the EC.
While the 1962 elections were by no means an easy feat for the EC, J&K was not in the limelight that it finds itself under in 2024. With 71 returning officers and 40 assistant returning officers managing the polls, there were over 18 lakh eligible voters. The Legislative Assembly had 100 members by direct election, but 25 seats were kept vacant and the area of J&K under Pakistani occupation was excluded from delimitation.
Interestingly, till 1957, there were 67 single-member constituencies and four two-member constituencies in J&K. But in 1961, as in other parts of the country, two-member constituencies were abolished, and reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was provided only on single-member seats. In J&K too, the four two-member constituencies were split into eight one-member seats, taking the total number of seats to 75.
For the EC, the biggest hurdle while fixing the 1962 poll schedule was the weather in J&K. The other challenge was holding these elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls across India. Though the EC realised that April was the most suitable month to hold elections in the snow-capped state, the Jammu region went to polls on February 24, while the Kashmir and Ladakh regions exercised their universal adult franchise on March 15, 1962. It was decided that the entire election process would be completed before March 31.
In the 1957 Assembly polls, candidates — all from the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), the prime political party in the state — returned unopposed on 43 seats. Of 75 Assembly seats in that election, the JKNC won 69, the Praja Parishad five and the Harijan Mandal one. The JKNC’s election symbol was the same as that of the Congress — a pair of bullocks carrying a yoke. The Praja Parishad’s election symbol was the rising sun, while the Harijan Mandal’s was a standing lion.
In the 1962 polls, JKNC candidates returned unopposed on 34 seats. In 41 other constituencies, 140 candidates contested. In these 41 seats, the JKNC won 36, Praja Parishad three and two Independents won the remaining two seats. The other parties lost their deposit. In some polling stations in four constituencies, fresh polls were ordered due to allegations of serious irregularities. The expenditure incurred by the state on the election, including preparation of the electoral rolls and setting up of 1,223 polling stations, was just Rs 2,92,649.
With the JKNC sweeping the polls, J&K PM Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad continued to lead the state. However, these elections were not free of their share of controversy. Some Opposition parties threatened to boycott the polls, alleging that they were not “free and fair”. The Praja Socialist Party and G M Sadiq’s Left-leaning Democratic National Conference (DNC) had issued a joint statement that the “ruling National Conference was fanning feelings of provincialism and regionalism” and announced that they were boycotting the polls. However, the Praja Socialist Party ended up contesting from six seats and the DNC from 20 — both failed to secure a single seat.
In the 1962 polls, the Praja Parishad — which would merge with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the precursor to the BJP, in 1964 — contested from 25 Assembly segments, all in the Jammu region. After the party won just three of 25 seats, the BJS remarked that despite the EC conducting the Assembly polls in the state for the first time, “the malpractice, so much usual in Jammu and Kashmir elections, could not be stopped”.
Criticising the BJS for its remarks, Inder Malhotra, the Congress MP from Kathua, said in the Lok Sabha on March 23, 1962, “Regarding the elections, I want to conclude by making the remark that the political parties and persons who were defeated in the general elections should take their defeat in a sporting manner, They cannot say that the elections in India have not been fair, merely because they have been defeated in the elections.”
In September 1964, a large group of JKNC leaders decided to join the Congress. Meanwhile, the Praja Parishad merged with the BJS. The year 1964 was significant for another reason — Sheikh Abdullah, dismissed as the state’s PM in the famous Kashmir Conspiracy Case and sent to jail in 1953, was released after 11 years by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in April 1964.
Abdullah would end up negotiating between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, including visiting Pakistan to talk to President Ayub Khan. Even as the logistics of Khan’s India visit were being worked out, Nehru passed away on May 27, 1964. For Abdullah, Nehru’s death came at a heavy cost — he was once again put in jail by Nehru’s successor Lal Bahadur Shastri. In fact, Abdullah’s incarceration would be continued by the Indira Gandhi government. He would spend the next decade in and out of jail, under house arrest or in exile.
