J&K Assembly Election 2024 Phase 2: Of the 26 seats in the second round, 15 are in central Kashmir.
Voting for the second phase of the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections - the first major election in J&K in a decade - began today.
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An approximate voter turnout of 54 per cent was recorded till 5 pm, with the highest in Reasi (71.81 per cent) and Poonch (71.59) districts. The lowest turnout was in Srinagar (27.31 per cent) and Ganderbal (58.81) districts. The latter is the stronghold of National Conference leaders and former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son, Omar Abdullah, who is contesting this seat.
Omar Abdullah is among the high-profile candidates in this phase; Mr Abdullah is contesting from two seats - Ganderbal and Budgam - both of which vote today. The Ganderbal seat saw less than 54 per cent voter turnout till 3 pm, while in Budgam the figure was even lower - 47.18 per cent. Both seats were won by Mr Abdullah's National Conference in the last Assembly election, in 2014.
Other prominent candidates on ballots today include the BJP's J&K chief, Ravinder Raina, who is defending his Nowshera seat that is in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress' J&K chief, Tariq Hamid Karra, is also contesting in this phase; he stands from Central Shalteng in the Srinagar Lok Sabha area, which was one of six new seats added to the J&K Assembly for this election.
Voting takes place for 26 seats (of the J&K Assembly's 90) in this round. Of these 26, 15 are in central Kashmir, once a stronghold for separatists, who are also considered to have sway in areas around Srinagar, where too voting is taking place. Voter turnout in these areas - such as Khanyar, Zedbal, Lal Chowk, Eidgah, and Hazratbal - is often low. This time it is between 15.8 and 34.65 per cent.
This is the second phase of the 2024 J&K election - the first in the former state in a decade. J&K has been without an elected government since the Assembly was dissolved in November 2018, months after the BJP withdrew support to then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her People's Democratic Party. J&K has been under President's Rule since.
Voting for the third phase will be on October 1. Counting of votes will be on October 8, with those from the Haryana election that will take place on October 5.
In December last year the Supreme Court said an Assembly election must be held in J&K by September 30, 2024. The order was part of the verdict on pleas challenging scrapping of Article 370, which granted the former state special status. J&K was then bifurcated into two union territories.
Fifteen senior diplomats from the United States, Norway, Singapore, and a few other countries are in Kashmir to witness this election. Led by US Deputy Chief of Mission Jorgan Andrews and accompanied by six officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, they visited several polling stations.
In the first phase - September 18 - voting figures were high. The turnout for 24 constituencies across seven districts averaged 61.13 per cent, the Election Commission said. However, this was still lower than the record of 66 per cent, which was set in 2014.
This - the first assembly election in 10 years - was expected to break voting records but turnout for many assembly constituencies has come down, compared to the 2014 figures.
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