No Votes Cast In 90 Booths For Srinagar Lok Sabha Seat: Sources

As many as 90 polling booths, mostly in downtown Srinagar city, saw no voting in Thursday's elections to the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, sources said.

The Srinagar constituency comprising eight assembly segments recorded zero turnout in as many as 50 polling booths.

The majority of these booths were located in Eidgah, Khanyar, Habba Kadal and Batmaloo, sources said.

Barring the Sonawar assembly segment, where former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar cast their votes, all other seven assembly seats recorded a single digit voting percentage with Eidgah at 3.3 per cent by the end of the polling. Sonawar recorded 12 per cent polling.

In the neighbouring Ganderbal district, which is a part of the Srinagar parliamentary seat, as many as 27 polling booths recorded no votes at the end of the day.

The same was the case with 13 booths of Budgam, which witnessed large scale violence in 2017 by-elections to Lok Sabha.

In Budgam area, Chadoora saw the lowest turnout at 9.2 per cent among the five assembly segments, while Chrar-e-Sharief recorded the highest turn out of 31.1 per cent.

The National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, who is the sitting MP from this constituency, is again contesting from this seat for the 17th Lok Sabha. 

PDP has fielded Aga Syed Mohsin, while Khalid Jahangir from BJP and Peoples Conference's Irfan Ansari are also in the fray. 

The Congress, which is an ally of NC, has stayed away from contesting Srinagar.