Amid separatist sponsored shutdown and cold weather, 74.1 per cent polling was recorded in the first phase of panchayat polls in Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday. The situation remained peaceful in the poll bound areas.
Officials said that Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh region recorded 59.7 and 70.9 per cent turnout respectively. In Kashmir Valley, Srinagar recorded 21.8, Budgam 30.14 Kupwara 71.9, Baramulla 69.1 and Bandipora 56.2 per cent votes. The polling was held in 47 Panchayat blocks covering 21 blocks in Jammu province, 16 in Kashmir valley and 10 blocks in Ladakh region. Udhampur district in Jammu region recorded the higest of 83.6 per cent turnout.
Three blocks of Bandipora district, five blocks each in Baramulla and Kupwara districts, one each in Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam district went to polls in the inaugural phase.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer, 427 candidates are in the fray for 536 Sarpanch Halqas and 5951 candidates for 4048 Panch Wards in the State for which voting and counting is scheduled to be held on Sunday. The panchayat polls are held on non-party basis in nine phases in 316 blocks in 4483 pachayat halqas comprising of over 35,000 panch constituencies.
The 2nd phase of village polls is scheduled on November 20. The last phase would be conducted on December 11.
Adequate security arrangements in villages and poll bound areas had been put in place to ensure smooth and peaceful polls. High speed mobile internet services had been suspended in poll bound areas in Kashmir region while train services were also suspended.
The last Panchayat elections in the State were held in 2011 after a gap of 20 years and Panchayats completed their term in July 2016.
National Conference and PDP have boycotted the panchayat polls in the State. However, Congress, BJP and other parties participated in Municipal elections and not averse to Panchayat polls.
The normal life remained affected on the polling day following a shutdown call by separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a grouping of prominent separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. Mirwaiz Umar during his weekly sermon in Srinagar’s Grand Mosque on Friday called for shutdown on the inaugural phase of the panchayat polls and asked the people to observe strike in poll-bound areas in subsequent phases.
