Poonch district set for polls amid tight security tomorrow

Jammu, Nov 16 (UNI) The Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls tomorrow amid tight security in the first of the seven-phase elections, besides seven other segments witnessing the polls in the Valley and Ladakh region.

''Thousands of security personnel have been deployed to ensure peaceful polling in three segments of Poonch district including Mendhar, Surankote and Poonch-Haveli,'' official sources here said.

The officials, however, said polling is expected to be high in Poonch district.

Besides three segments in Poonch district, seven out of 87 segments including Gurez, Bandipora and Sonawari (Kashmir), Leh, Nobra, Zanskar and Kargil (Ladakh) are also going to take part in the electoral process.

In Mendhar 13, Surankote 11 and Poonch-Haveli with 13 candidates would observe tough fight among the Congress, National Conference and the BJP.

Earlier, in 2002 elections, Mendhar and Poonch-Haveli seats were won by the National Conference.

''We are expecting a fairly good voter turnout in the elections, while all tight security arrangements have been put in place,'' a senior police official told UNI.

Seven phase election in Jammu and Kashmir will be held on November 17, November 23, November 30, December 7, December 13, December 17 and December 24 while the counting will take place on December 28.

The 10 segments will have 1,064 polling stations with 84,969 voters in Surankote, 77,853 in Mendhar and 96,758 voters in Poonch-Haveli constituencies, 58,073 voters in Kargil, 62,533 in Leh, 20,044 in Zanskar, 11,863 in Nobra, 84,726 in Sonawari, 86,306 in Bandipora and 15,330 in Gurez.

UNI VBH PY KN1940