Srinagar: Polling is underway in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency where 24 candidates are in the fray, officials said on Monday.
Voting began at 7 am. People were seen lining up outside polling stations to exercise their franchise in some areas of the constituency, according to the officials.
Polling in the Srinagar seat is being held in the fourth round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.
This is the first major election in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The article was revoked in 2019, leading to the bifurcation of the state into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
There are 17.48 lakh voters in the constituency that comprises Srinagar, Ganderbal and Pulwama districts and parts of Budgam and Shopian districts.
Authorities have set up 2,135 polling stations across the five districts.
Special polling stations have been established for migrant voters of the Kashmir Division of the Union Territory — 21 in Jammu, four in Delhi and one in Udhampur district.
Voting is scheduled to end at 6 pm.
The National Conference, supported by the INDIA bloc, has fielded influential Shia leader and former minister Aga Ruhullah Mehdi from the seat while the PDP has named its youth president Waheed Para as its candidate.
The Apni Party has fielded Mohammad Ashraf Mir and the DPAP has fielded Amir Ahmad Bhat. There are 20 others, including two women, in the fray. (PTI)
