SRINAGAR The voter turnout remained abysmally low in penultimate leg of the 3-phased election to Anantnag parliamentary constituency on Monday, recording 10.32 percent on Monday.
Polling started at 7 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. in Kulgam comprising of four assembly segments of Noorabad, Homeshalibugh, Kulgam and Devsar. The voting started on the dull note in all the four segments but picked up pace Noorabad and Devsar as the day progressed.
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Giving breakup of the polling, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, Shailendra Kumar informed on Monday said Noorabad recorded 20.58%, Kulgam 1.72%, Homshalibug 1.14% and Devsar 16.84%. He said that 1818 migrants also voted. The over voting percentage was 10.32%, he said.
He said that for the smooth polling across the district, 433 polling stations were set up out of which 20 were model polling stations. Moreover 4 all women polling stations were also setup across the district.
Divulging the details of the voter turnout in the district, the CEO informed that the total number of votes polled was 35524 with highest turnout of 20.58 per cent recorded in Noorabad segment of the district. With the completion of the todays phase, the overall poll percentage of Anantnag constituency has touched 12.35 per cent.
Over 3.45 lakh electors were entitled to vote in the Kulgam district of them include 179,607 males, 164,604 females, 1262 service electors (1254 male and eight female) and 13 transgender.
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There are 18 candidates in the fray that include Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference, Sofi Yousuf of Bhartiya Janta Party, Ghulam Ahmad Mir of Indian National Congress, Mehbooba Mufti of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, Nisar Ahmad Wani of Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party, Choudhary Zaffar Ali of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Conference, Sanjay Kumar Dhar of Manav Adhikar Party, Surinder Singh of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) and Imtiyaz Ahmad Rather, Ridwana Sanam, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, Zubair Masoodi, Shams Khwaja, Ali Muhammad Wani, Gh Muhammad Wani, Kyasir Ahmed Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan and Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh, all independents.
Kulgam Assembly segment had the highest number of 98,298 voters (51,051 males, 46,818 females, 455 service voters and 4 transgender voters) while as Noorabad had the lowest 77,171 electors, including 40,093 males, 36,886 females, 188 service voters and 4 transgender voters.
Assembly segment of Devsar had 91288 voters (47467 males, 43324 females, 492 service voters and five transgender voters), and HS Bugh segment had 78669 voters (40996 males, 37576 females and 127 service voters).
The Anantnag district of the Lok Sabha constituency went to polls in the third phase on April 23 recording 13.6 per cent polling. The Pulwama and Shopian districts are going to polls on May 6.
Over 64% KPs Cast Vote
Over 64 per cent voter turnout of Kashmiri migrants was recorded in the second phase of the three-phased elections in Anantnag parliamentary constituency Monday.
Unhappy over the “cumbersome” voter registration process adopted for them by the Election Commission, the community members demanded scrapping of M-forms.
They alleged that the forms deny and discourage them from voting.
“Over 64 per cent votes (by Kashmiri migrants) were polled today. As many as 1,784 such voters cast their votes in the second phase, out of a total of 2,779 registered voters, after completing the required formalities,” Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) for Migrants, Pankaj Anand told PTI.
Though the official admitted that there were problems while preparing the electoral roll, Anand said hectic efforts were made to ensure no voter was left out.
“There were only a few such cases due to wrong filling of Form M. Some of these forms did not have names of polling stations. Some names did not match with the records,” he said.
The official said 59 per cent Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants voted at 21 polling stations established across Jammu district for the Anantnag parliamentary seat.
The polling in the south Kashmir constituency is being held in three phases. The constituency is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama, covering 16 assembly segments.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and state Congress chief G A Mir are among the 18 candidates whose fate will be decided from the constituency, which has a large number of registered migrant voters.
The Election Commission had set up 21 special polling stations for Kashmiri migrant voters in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in Delhi.
Meanwhile, dozens of Kashmiri Pandits protested outside a polling station at Jagati camp on the outskirts of the city as they claimed their names were missing from the voters list.
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