Valley parties on Tuesday asked a visiting poll body panel led by chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar to hold Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously in Jammu and Kashmir.

The last Assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir around 10 years ago.

The Election Commission on Tuesday held talks with representatives of regional political parties such as the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party as well as those from national parties such as the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party to assess the Union Territory’s preparedness for the upcoming general election.

“Our men met them and we demanded that parliamentary and Assembly elections be held together. It remains to be seen what they will do,” former chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah told reporters.

Former minister Sakina Itoo, who was part of the National Conference delegation that met the EC, said they told the visiting poll body team that elections were held here even during peak militancy in the 1990s.

“We told the commission that the gap between the elections today was not as long as it was during 10 years of militancy (in the 1990s),” Sakina said.

Sakina said: “There was an election (in 1996) after six years (of the inception of) militancy.

PDP leader Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura said his party also batted for holding Assembly and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously.

The political parties have in the past blamed the EC for deferring Assembly elections under pressure from the BJP.

The commission is tight-lipped about the Assembly elections although CEC Rajiv Kumar had in March last year said there was a vacuum in Jammu and Kashmir that needed to be filled.

Last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 2024 and restore statehood at the earliest.

The Union Territory in January this year almost lost the last vestige of democracy after the tenure of nearly 28,000 representatives in panchayats and block development councils (BDCs) came to an end.

The only people’s representatives that remain in office are a few dozen members in district development councils — the third tier of the panchayat raj system whose term ends in 2026 — and the five Lok Sabha MPs.

The EC team is meeting top police and civil officers to learn about the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections.

The Centre has already sanctioned the deployment of 600 paramilitary companies to ensure the safe conduct of elections in Jammu and Kashmir. This is in addition to tens of thousands of soldiers, paramilitary and police forces on the ground.