New Delhi: Ending a decade-long wait, the first phase of Assembly election in 24 constituencies in seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir will be held on Wednesday. Multi-tier security arrangements have been put in place for the Assembly election, the first in the Union Territory after the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019. The last Assembly election was held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a State.
An official said hundreds of additional troops had been mobilised to provide security cover to the 3,276 polling stations spread over the seven districts of Kashmir and Jammu divisions.
The Doda and Kishtwar districts in the Chenab Valley, which have witnessed heighted militancy this year and frequent gun battles, will also witness polling on Wednesday. Officials said the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police had early this month stepped up area domination in the upper reaches of the two districts that have six seats.
The Chenab Valley is one region that was recast by the J&K Delimitation Commission and two additional Assembly constituencies were carved out of it.
The BJP aims to win a majority of seats after the delimitation. The new constituencies of Doda West and Padder-Nagseni have majority of Hindus. Inderwal is the only Muslim-majority constituency in Kishtwar district after the two Hindu belts of Mulchiter and Kuntawara of Inderwal were adjusted in Kishtwar, a Hindu-majority seat now.
A general alert has been sounded in the entire Union Territory, especially the cities of Jammu and Srinagar. Additional checkpoints have been set up to search pedestrians and vehicles. Cameras and drones are being used to assist the security agencies to maintain vigil in volatile pockets.
More than 23.27 lakh voters — 11.76 lakh men and 11.51 lakh women — are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase. There are 5.66 lakh voters between the ages of 18 and 29, including 1.23 lakh voters aged 18 to 19, officials said. Among the first-time voters, 10, 261 are men and 9,329 women.
There are 302 urban and 2,974 rural polling stations. They have webcasting facilities for “smooth and hassle-free electoral participation” of voters, officials said.
Around 35,000 migrant Kashmiri Pandits will also join the poll process at 24 polling stations set up across the country.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly has 90 seats. Voting will be held for 24 seats in districts Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam, Ramban, Kishtwar and Doda districts in the first phase on September 18. Election will be held in three phases and the results will be declared on 4th October.
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