2nd phase voting in disturbed seat Anantnag continues slowly

New Delhi, April 29: The second phase of voting in Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir is continuing slowly on Monday.

It's notable that terror hotbed Anantnag is the only seat in the country where the voting is being held in three phases. The staggered voting in this parliamentary constituency is spread across four districts - Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian.

In the first phase on April 23, miscreants had pelted stones at vehicles carrying the poll staff and the security forces back to the district headquarters after the poll process.

In the second phase, voting is being conducted only in Kulgam district, which is spread over four Assembly segments of Noorabad, Kulgam, Homshalibugh and Devsar.

Voting hours have been scheduled from 7 am to 4 pm instead of 6 pm as was done in the poll process of other Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

Voting is taking place in 433 polling stations and a total of 3,45,486 electors are eligible to vote.

Kulgam voting segment has the highest number of voters, which is 98,298.

The voting percentage till 9 am was recorded 0.61 per cent, which rose to 3.74 per cent till 12 noon. The voting picked up afternoon and 6.74 per cent voting was recorded till 1 pm.

Authorities have made elaborate arrangements to ensure that militants are prevented from disrupting the democratic process by creating multiple layers of security.

Heavy deployments of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and police were on Sunday made to ensure peaceful and fair poll process. Security forces were moved out early on Saturday to take over the polling stations across Kulgam district.

There are 18 candidates in the fray in this constituency, but the main contest is between Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ghulam Ahmad Mir of Congress and Justice (Retired) Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference (NC).

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Sofi Yusuf and the Peoples Conference (PC) has fielded Choudhary Zafar Ali. In addition, there is a lone woman candidate, Ridwana Sanam who is fighting as an Independent candidate.

For the first time in the electoral history of the state, a non-local, Shams Khwaja, a lawyer from Uttar Pradesh, is also in the fray. Next phase of polling in the Anantanag constituency is scheduled on May 6.