The Election Commission has cancelled the Anantnag Lok Sabha bypolls in Jammu and Kashmir which had been scheduled for May 25 citing the law and order situation after the Home Ministry turned down the EC request for 7.4 Lakh Paramilitary Personnel and offered only 30,000 additional security forces.

The Anantnag bypolls had been initially fixed for April 12, however following the violence in the April 9 polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat which saw the death of 8 people, the Anantnag polls were delayed. Initially, the EC had sought for 30,000 Paramilitary Personnel for both the bypolls but increased the security demands later on.

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Last week EC had asked the home ministry to keep at its disposal 740 companies (1 company includes 100 personnel) of paramilitary forces by May 12 so that the forces could be deployed properly, but the home ministry said only 300 companies could be arranged.

The ministry said that since there are around 10 lakh paramilitary personnel in total under the home ministry’s command,  it would be difficult to assemble the required numbers from different parts of the country on such small notice.

The demand for the large deployment seemed unprecedented as the EC had asked for only 70,000 paramilitary forces personnel to conduct the entire Assembly elections held in 5 states recently.