Srinagar: As much as 69.01 per cent voter turnout, out of over 17.8 lakh eligible voters, was recorded in Jammu on Friday when voting was held in 88 constituencies across 13 states and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
An Election Commission of India (ECI) official in Jammu said that the highest voting percentage was recorded in the Vijaypur assembly segment which registered 75. 67 percent polling, while the lowest was in Bahu at 62.34 percent.
BJP’s Jugal Kishore Sharma is seeking his third term on the Jammu seat but is facing a tough contest from former minister Raman Bhalla, the Congress nominee and working president of the party’s J&K unit. The other key faces in the fray are Ankur Sharma of the Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal and Jagdish Raj of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pandurang K. Pole said that the voting was held peacefully on all the 2,416 polling stations from 7 am to 7 pm with the electorate especially youth and first-time voters showing a lot of enthusiasm and many of them seen standing in queues much ahead of the beginning of the polling.
Meanwhile, former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have strongly opposed the plea of the BJP and some regional parties to the ECI seeking deferment of the polling in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency in view of the persisting inclement weather.
Following the representations of the BJP, J&K Apni Party and some other groups and, at least, three candidates in the fray, the ECI had on Thursday sought a report from J&K’s Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and the CEO on their seeking rescheduling of elections in the constituency due to adverse weather conditions, including snowfall on the Mughal road which connects the Anantnag district with twin-border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.
Mr. Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar, “I appeal to the ECI that such a step should not be taken as the demand for postponement from all parties”. He added, “The weird thing is that some of the people who have written to the ECI are not contesting. If I write to the ECI about constituencies in Tamil Nadu, etc. will they take notice?” Mr. Abdullah was flanked by his National Conference (NC) candidate for Anantnag-Rajouri seat Mian Altaf Ahmad who endorsed his views and termed the demand for the postponement of the polling as a “collusion” against him and his party by those who foresee him winning this election “hands down”.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Ms. Mufti who is seeking election on Anantnag-Rajouri seat told reporters in Surankote in Poonch district, “I reached here from the Valley after driving through the Mughal Road which was opened for vehicular traffic recently. I’m winning this election as the people, cutting across religious and party lines, are coming forward in my support. But they do not want to see me in the Parliament and, therefore, all have ganged up against me and are trying to use the ECI to defer and rig the elections”.
Ms. Mufti who has flashed a letter to the ECI opposing any attempt at postponing the polling in Anantnag-Rajouri constituency which is scheduled to be held in the third phase of elections on May 7, asserted that such a deferment “will result in denying a level playing field to all the parties".
J&K BJP unit president Ravinder Raina, J&K Apni party president Syed Altaf Bukhari, J&K People’s Conference leader Imran Reza Ansari and the Democratic Progressive Azad Party candidate and two independents have submitted their representation to the ECI, seeking deferment of the polling.
