The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, New Delhi

The troubled Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir will vote for a new state government in a seven-stage poll set to begin next month and conclude in late December, the Election Commission said Sunday.

"The commission is under a constitutional mandate to hold (a) general election to constitute the new legislative assembly in the state" by January 10, 2009, the body said in a statement.

Polling starts on November 17 and all votes will be counted on December 28, the statement said.

Indian Kashmir has been under federal rule since July following the collapse of the state government over a land row that triggered a revival of anti-India demonstrations in the Muslim-majority region.

New Delhi has been battling a separatist insurgency in Kashmir since 1989.

Pro-India groups welcomed the announcement of polls but separatist leaders were unmoved.

"Elections can never be a solution to the issue of Kashmir," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a moderate separatist, told AFP.

"They can never be a substitute for our right to self-determination. Our fight for freedom will continue."

The next two months will also see assembly polls in four other states-the Maoist insurgency-hit Chattisgarh, Hindu nationalist-ruled Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the small northeastern state of Mizoram-as well as in the Congress-ruled capital region of Delhi.

The elections will be closely watched as a popularity test for both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led alliance that has governed India since May 2004 and the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

National elections must be held before May 2009.