36 to vie for three Poonch Assembly seats in J

Jammu, Nov 4 (UNI) A total of 36 candidates remained in the electoral fray for three Assembly seats of bordering Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, after the end of last day for the withdrawal of nominations, official spokesman today said.

''With 11 candidates pulling out of elections at the end of the last day for withdrawal of nominations papers yesterday, only 36 are in the fray for Assembly seats in Poonch district,'' the spokesman told UNI.

Elections for the three constituencies of the district -- Poonch-Haveli, Surankote and Mendhar - are scheduled under Phase-I on November 17.

While five Independents withdrew their nomination papers for Mendhar Assembly constituency, four pulled out their names from Surankote and two withdrew from Poonch-Haveli constituency.

Earlier, the nominations of two candidates each from three Assembly constituencies, were rejected during scrutiny, the spokesman said.

''The total of 36 candidates included 12 from Mendhar, 11 from Surankote and 13 from Poonch,'' he said.

For the first time in Poonch, two women have filed nomination papers for Assembly elections.

National Conference (NC) had secured 100 per cent victory in Poonch during previous Assembly elections with its candidates winning all the three seats of the district.

Poonch district has 2,59,580 voters, including 1,27,473 women.

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