Security tightened in J&K ahead of second phase of polling

Srinagar: Over 25.78 lakh voters will decide the fate of 239 candidates in the second phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections to be held on Wednesday. A spokesman of the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that the second phase of polling will cover 26 segments across Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts in the Kashmir Valley and Reasi, Rajouri and Poonch districts in the Jammu region.

Among the 25,78,099 registered voters are 13,12,730 male, 12,65,316 female and 53 third-gender voters and 1,20, 612 first-time voters in the 18-19 age group, the officials said.

The ECI said that as many as 3,502 polling stations with 100 per cent webcasting have been set up across all the 26 constituencies. “To enhance voter participation, 157 special polling stations have been established in this phase which include 26 managed by women as pink polling stations, 26 each by specially-abled persons and youths whereas 31 are border polling stations, 26 green and 22 unique polling stations,” the ECI said.

It added that more than 13,000 polling staff took positions at these polling stations a day before the voting whereas, as part of a multi-tier security bandobast, the well-equipped security personnel from J&K police, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), the Border Security Force (BSF) and Seema Shastra Bal (SSB) have reached their places of duty to ensure peaceful voting which will start at 7 am and continue till 6 pm.

Meanwhile, the key contestants in this phase are former chief minister and National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah, the JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra and BJP’s state unit chief Ravinder Raina.

While Abdullah is seeking election simultaneously from family turf Ganderbal and Budgam -both in the Kashmir Valley, Raina is hoping to retain the Nowshera seat in the frontier Rajouri district which he won in 2014. Karra is fighting for Srinagar’s Shalteng seat as a candidate of the NC-Congress combine.

The other prominent faces in the fray are former ministers Syed Altaf Bukhari, Ali Muhammad Sagar, Abdul Rahim Rather, Asiea Naqash, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali and Syed Mushtaq Bukhari, former speaker of the erstwhile J&K state Assembly Mubarak Gul and former mayors of Srinagar Junaid Azim Mattu and Salman Sagar.

In the Valley, the seats up for voting are Kangan, Ganderbal, Hazratbal, Khanyar, Habba Kadal, Lal Chowk, Channapora, Zadibal, Eidgah, Shalteng, Budgam, Beerwah, Khansahib, Chrar-i-Sharief and Chadoora and in Jammu region Gulabgarh, Reasi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Kalakote- Sunderbani, Nowshera, Rajouri, Budhal, Thannamandi, Surankote, Poonch Haveli and Mehdhar.

Kangan, Gulabgarh, Rajouri Budhal, Thannamandi, Surankote and Mendhar segments having sizable Gujjar, Bakarwal and Pahari populations are reserved Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats.

In the first phase of the J&K Assembly elections held after a gap of over ten years, polling took place on September 18 in 24 segments with a voter turnout of 61.13 per cent. The third phase of the voting is scheduled to be held on October 1 whereas the counting of votes will take place on October 8.