Srinagar, Apr 17: The high profile Srinagar parliamentary constituency alongwith Udhampur will go to polls Thursday amid tight security arrangements.
The authorities said that all necessary arrangements have been put in place to conduct safe and secure elections. Voting is scheduled in both the Lok Sabha constituencies from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Election authorities here also said that they are ready for the polling. “All necessary preparations and security arrangements are in place for the smooth conduct of the elections,” Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shalinder Kumar said.
Sources said that additional troops of paramilitary CRPF and police will be deployed in Srinagar and other districts to ensure smooth and incident-free polls. Almost all the polling stations were taken over on Wednesday by the CRPF men, sources said.
Meanwhile police said that they are determined to make the ground safe for a successful poll and would, therefore, not spare any persons who try to disrupt the orderly conduct of the exercise.
Spanning over three districts of Srinagar, Budgam, and Ganderbal- the Srinagar parliamentary constituency has 18 Assembly segments. 12,90,318 voters will cast their votes at 1,716 polling stations set up in the constituency.
It would be interesting whether the National Conference would show its dominance on the parliamentary seat, where the party has lost only thrice in last over 50 years.
The candidates in the fray are Sheikh Khalid Jehangir of Bharatiya Janata Party, Aga Syed Mohsin of Peoples Democratic Party, Abdul Rashid Ganie of J&K National Panthers Party, Dr Farooq Abdullah of National Conference, Showkat Hussain Khan of Janta Dal United, Abdul Khaliq Bhat of Shiv Sena, Irfan Raza Ansari of People’s Conference, Nazir Ahmad Lone of Rashtriya Jankranti Party, Nazir Ahmad Sofi of Manavadikar National Party, while Bilal Sultan, Sajjad Ahmad Dar, Abdul Rashid Banday are contesting as independent candidates.
In Udhampur constituency, those in fray are Tilak Raj Bhagat of Bhujan Samaj Party, Dr. Jitendra Singh of Bhartiya Janata Party, Vikramaditya Singh of Congress, Harsh Dev Singh of JKNPP, Ch. Lal Singh of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party, Mohammad Ayub of Navrang Congress Party, Meenakshi of Shiv Sena and Bansi Lal, Rakesh Mudgal, Shaber Ahmad, Garib Singh and Firdous Ahmed all independents.
The constituency is spread over 17 Assembly segments comprising six districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua.
The Udhampur parliamentary seat has 16, 85,779 electors of which 1,665,467 are registered as general voters and 20,312 as service voters.
Among the General voters, 876,319 are males and 789,105 females. The service voters include 20,052 males and 260 females, and 43 transgender electors.
For the smooth conduct of election in the PC, the Election Commission of India has established 2,710 polling stations.
Minor violent incidents reported from central Kashmir districts
Srinagar: Ahead of polls, to be held tomorrow in Srinagar-Budgam Parliamentary constituency, two violent incidents were reported Wednesday evening.
Sources said that some motor cycle borne masked persons threw some explosive device towards the house of NC MLC Ali Mohd Dar at Chadoora in Budgam.
The device, sources said, exploded outside the boundary wall of the house resulting in no damage or injury.
Sources said at the time the device exploded, Dar was holding a meeting at his residential house.
Meanwhile, some unknown persons tried to set Government Boys High School, Kawmohalla Khanyar on fire on Wednesday evening.
The sources said that the said school is housing some polling booths.
“The miscreants failed in their designs. There was just very minor damage to a window as locals and the chowkidar doused the flames well in time,” said a police official, adding, SHO Khanyar reached the spot and things were normal.
Some miscreants attacked another polling station at Government Higher Secondary School Gurgari Mohalla in Zainakadal with patrol bomb and stones.
Police rushed to the spot, situation under control, Police sources said.
Some reports of stone throwing incidents were also reported from Gulabpora, Lar in Ganderbal; Sangam, Eidghah in Srinagar and Mirgund.
