News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 18th September 2024
In 24 constituencies spread over seven districts, the first round of Jammu and Kashmir’s three-phase Assembly elections is currently in progress. For the first time in ten years, the Union Territory is participating in an Assembly election. The current Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are the first since Article 370, which granted the former state special status, was repealed in 2019.
Additionally, as a Union Territory, Jammu and Kashmir is holding its first Assembly election. The state was split into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh upon the repeal of Article 370.
In eight Assembly segments spread over three districts in the Jammu region and sixteen in the Kashmir Valley, 219 candidates, including ninety independents, are up for election. Approximately 23 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots. 6 p.m. is the scheduled end time for the polls.
The remaining sixty-six Assembly seats will be polled in two more stages on September 25 and October 1. The votes will be counted on October 8.
58.2% voter turnout as recorded till 5 pm in the first phase of voting of Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls. With 77.23 percent of the vote, the Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir has the highest voter turnout to date; Pulwama has the lowest, at 43.87 percent.
This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir following a contentious delimitation process that ultimately allocated 43 assembly seats to Jammu and 47 assembly seats to Kashmir. In phase 1 of polling, over 2.3 million voters are anticipated to cast ballots in 24 of the 90 constituencies.The Election Commission of India (ECI) reports that there are 2,974 rural and 302 urban polling places. Each polling place will have four election staff members stationed there, including the presider. Over 14,000 poll workers will be assigned to work during the first phase of election .
The constituencies in South Kashmir, a former hotbed of militancy, that are up for vote today include Tral, Pulwama, Rajpora, Zainapora, Shopian, DH Pora, Kulgam, Devsar, Dooru, Kokernag (ST), Anantnag West, Anantnag, Srigufwara-Bijbehara, Shangus-Anantnag East, and Pahalgam.
The following seats in the Jammu area are up for election today: Inderwal, Kishtwar, Padder-Nagseni, Bhadarwah, Doda, Doda West, Ramban, and Banihal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress-National Conference (NC) coalition, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are the main political parties running in the assembly elections.
Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) of Engineer Rashid and political-religious group Jamaat-e-Islami have forged an impromptu alliance, but its candidates will run as Independents.
Important contenders in the first round are Ghulam Ahmad Mir, general secretary of the Congress, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, and Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
