Polling underway in Srinagar Parliamentary seat

Srinagar | Amidst tight security, polling was underway on Thursday in Srinagar Parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir to decide the fate of 10 candidates, including National Conference president Farooq Abdullah who is seeking a re-election from here.

Polling began at 7:am in the constituency, officials said. They said all arrangements were in place to ensure smooth conduct of the second phase of Parliamentary polls.

Adequate security arrangements were in place to secure the polling stations and to instill a sense of confidence among voters for ensuring free, fair, transparent and smooth conduct of elections in the constituency, they said.

Police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts — Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal — of the constituency, the officials said. However, they said most of the polling booths in the city wore a deserted look.

In some booths like 116 and 117 in Old Barzulla area of Amira Kadal assembly segment of the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, the EVMs were yet to be sealed, the officials said.

As many as 12,90,318 voters are eligible to decide the fate of 10 candidates. 1,716 polling stations have been set up in the constituency.

For migrant voters of the constituency, 26 polling stations have been set up with 21 polling stations in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah is among 10 candidates in the fray and is seen as the frontrunner to enter the Lok Sabha for the fourth time from Srinagar seat.

Besides Abdullah, the other prominent candidates are Aga Mohsin of PDP, Irfan Ansari of People’s Conference and Khalid Jehangir of BJP.

The campaigning for the prestigious seat, which came to an end on Tuesday, saw relatively a low key campaign with only Abdullah making his presence felt as a candidate.