Over 17.80 lakh voters to decide fate of 22 candidates in fray
Jammu: The Jammu Parliamentary constituency is all set to go for polls during the second phase of the General Elections on Friday.
The fate of 22 candidates, who are in the fray, will be decided by over 17.80 lakh voters of the Jammu Lok Sabha seat.
In this constituency, there is a direct fight between BJP’s Jugal Kishore Sharma and Congress Party’s Raman Bhalla. As Sharma is seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhalla is reminding people of the work done in Jammu in the past when he represented the Gandhinagar Assembly constituency of Jammu district in the J&K Legislative Assembly, and also when he was a minister in the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC)-Congress coalition government.
After the delimitation exercise, barring Sunderbani-Kalaote Assembly segment, Rajouri and Poonch districts were separated from the Jammu Parliamentary constituency and Reasi district, which was earlier part of the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, was made part of it.
At present, 17,80,835 lakh voters including 9,21,095 males and 8,59,712 female voters besides 28 third gender electorate are eligible to vote for this seat. Out of the total voters, 10,498 people are registered as Persons with Disability (PWD) and 666 voters are above the age of 100 years.
This constituency consists of 11 Assembly segments of Jammu district including Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Ranbir Singh Pura (Jammu-south), Bahu, Jammu East, Nagrota, Jammu West, Jammu North, Marh, Akhnoor and Chamb, three Assembly segments of Samba district including Ramgarh, Samba and Vijaypur, three Assembly segments of Reasi district including Gulabgarh, Reasi and Shri Mata Vasihno Devi and one Assembly segment of Rajouri district Kalakote-Sunderbani.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, around 2,416 polling stations have been established across three districts and one Assembly segment of the Rajouri district to ensure smooth polling. More than 15,000 polling staff, including reserves, will be deployed on duty on the polling day and the election staff including Presiding Officers will be stationed in every polling station.
Around 50 polling stations have been established in border areas of Jammu district whereas two such polling stations are there in Samba district.
Voting will begin at 7 am and the first voter will be provided a rose at every polling station and the polling will continue till 6 pm. The voting could go beyond 6 pm if there are voters’ still queue or inside the polling station premises around that time.
To facilitate smooth polling, the Election Commission of India has provided Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) like drinking water, electricity, toilet, ramp, furniture, verandah, sheds besides wheelchairs will also be provided to the needy. The ballot unit will also have a list of contesting candidates in braille. Wherever required, there will be separate queues for senior citizens and specially-abled persons facilitating them with early polling. Additionally, there will be a voter help desk, manned by the concerned Booth Level Officer (BLO).
On the directions of ECI, 10 Pink booths, which will be managed by only women staff for women voters, have been established in the constituency whereas 10 booths have been established particularly for specially-abled voters. The ECI has also established nine booths for the youth.
