J&K Assembly Elections: For the first time in a decade, voters in Jammu and Kashmir are heading to the polls on Wednesday for the first of the three-phase assembly election 2024. Jammu and Kashmir will see its first Assembly elections since 2014 and its first since the removal of Article 370, which gave the erstwhile state special status, in 2019.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), over 23 lakh voters will determine the fate of 219 candidates, including 90 independents, contesting for 24 assembly constituencies—eight in three districts of Jammu region and 16 in four districts of Kashmir valley.
This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The ECI has deployed 14,000 polling staff to oversee the process at 3,276 polling stations today.
In phase 1, as many as 1.23 lakh youth aged 18 to 19 years along with 28,309 persons with disabilities (PwDs) and 15,774 elderly voters over the age of 85, are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Prominent candidates from the Kashmir region running in phase one include PDP’s Iltija Mufti, CPI (M)’s Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and Congress’ Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
Pulwama is one of the constituencies where the contest is being keenly watched. PDP youth leader Waheed ur Rehman Para, who is contesting his first election is up against former party veteran Mohammad Khalil Band, who is now with the National Conference. Mr Para, 36, had campaigned for Mr Band as a youth leader from the PDP in the 2008 and 2014 elections and is on bail in a case under the stringent anti-terror act, UAPA. Mr Band, 73, is a three-time MLA.
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