Blitz Bureau
THE third and final phase of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir on October 1 saw a turnout of 65.58 per cent. As many as 40 seats across seven districts of the erstwhile state voted in the final phase.
The votes will be counted on October 8. The Election Commission called the exercise ‘historic’ with no repolls and overall voting beating Lok Sabha elections 2024 numbers. This is the first Assembly election in the UT after the abrogation of special status under Article 370 in August 2019.
The first phase of voting was held on September 18 and the second phase on September 25. A voter turnout of 61 per cent was recorded in the first phase while the approximate voter turnout was 57.3 per cent in the second phase of voting, according to poll panel data.
Among districts that voted on October 1, Udhampur in Jammu recorded about 73 per cent turnout followed by Samba 72.41 per cent, Kathua 70.53 per cent, Jammu 66.79 per cent, Bandipora 64.85 per cent, Kupwara 62. Baramulla in Kashmir saw 55.7 per cent turnout, the poll panel said.
The election in Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a multi-cornered fight for the 90 seats. While the National Conference and the Congress are fighting the elections in an alliance, the People’s Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the two other major players.
One of the key highlights and probable deciding factors in the polls is the participation of Pakistani refugees, Valmiki Samaj and the Gorkha community, who got voting rights in the Union Territory after the abrogation of Article 370.
