Jammu, April 10, (Scoop News)- Over 44 percent polling has been registered in first six hours of the polling in 20 constituencies across Jammu –Poonch Parliamentary seat in third phase of elections on Thursday, officials said.
The polling picked up gradually after it started on a dull note this morning. After four hours of polling long serpentine queues were seen outside several polling booths across Jammu parliamentary constituency.
19 contestants are in the fray for Jammu- Poonch parliamentary seat, the contest, however, appears to be triangular between Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates, Jugal Kishore, Madan Sharma and Yash Pal Sharma respectively_ (a poll battle between Sharma’s).
Over 13,000 polling staff besides 250 companies of paramilitary security forces in addition to local police were deployed to man over 2271 polling stations for holding of smooth and incident free elections in four districts in Jammu region.
The authorities have identified 111 polling stations in Jammu- Poonch constituency, as critical out of total 1412 critical polling stations across the state.
To facilitate the voters, the election authorities has also set up 1153 in Jammu district, 499 polling stations in Rajouri, 373 in Poonch district and 246 in Samba, an election official said.
With over 1.76 million (925044 male and 838535 females) voters spread over four district, Jammu- Poonch parliamentary seat, Rajouri district has 364018 (193154 male and 170864) voters, Poonch district has 2,54,331 (134565 males and 119766 females), Samba 180678 (93877 males and 86801 females) and Jammu district has the largest number of
voters across the state with 964552 (503448 males and 461104 female).
“The polling is going from moderate to brisk at many polling stations across Jammu Lok Sabha segment. We have placed all necessary arrangements for the purpose to ensure a smooth besides a free and fair election”, said a supervisory polling official, requesting not to be named.
For the first time, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM’s) were uploaded with an option of None of the Above (NOTA) facility and was made available to the electorate.
A festive mood was seen outside many polling stations in Jammu, the winter capital, with a large number of people waiting in queues waiting for their turn to cast their votes.
“Besides, road, water, electricity, I have cast my vote for my identity as a Jammuite”, says Sunaina Mahajan (28), a voter.
“This election would mean an end to discrimination against us”, said Rajeev Gupta (37), a voter.
“We want to get our problems mitigated by electing a sensible representative from this parliamentary segment who will care for us and reciprocate our commitment with his deeds”, said Ram Lal, (64), a voter.
Jammu-Poonch seat has been traditionally a Congress bastion as its candidates won eight time in dozen of elections, this constituency has witnessed since 1967.BJP won the seat twice as its candidate Vaid Viahnov Dutt got elected in 1998 and 1999.Lok Sabha elections.
National Conference’s, Talib Hussain, won the seat during bi-election contest in 2002.
Brisk campaigning may increase voters turn over at national level this election season.
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