With great enthusiasm among the voters, polling for Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency, which will decide the fate of Union Minister Gulam Nabi Azad, recorded a turn out of over 28 per cent till 11 am.
“28.21 per cent of polling has been recorded till 11 AM in Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency”, a senior Election department official told PTI.
“There is great enthusiasm among the voters polling for 5—Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency which took off at 7 am, with long queues being reported outside polling stations across various assembly segments”, he added.
The polling in the constituency was moving on smoothly without reports of any untoward incidents, he said.
Reasi district of Udhampur LS constituency recorded the highest polling with 30.12 per cent of votes cast, followed by Udhampur with 29.87 per cent, Kathua with 29.35 per cent, Ramban with 27.68, Kishtwar 27.35 per cent and Doda with 22.98 per cent at 11 am.
Today’s voting will decide the fate of Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is making his maiden attempt to enter the Lok Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Azad is in a direct contest with Diabetologist Jintender Singh of BJP in the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency.
The fate of 13 candidates in the fray will be decided by 14,61,373 voters including 7,77,599 males and 6,77,850 females. The candidates include Arshad Malik of PDP, Dharam Pal Balgotra of BSP and Prof Bhim Singh JKNPP.
The Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency, with headquarters at Kathua, comprises six districts — Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Udhampur, Reasi and Kathua and the LS constituency comprises 17 Assembly constituencies.
During the first hour of polling, as many as 118 votes were reportedly cast at 67/14 Gagwal-A Polling Station while as 149 votes were cast at 67/15 Gagwal—B Polling Station in Hiranagar Assembly Segment.
At 62/2 Government Higher Secondary Rang polling station, 100 year old Jaffo Ram was among the early voters who cast their vote in Ramnagar Assembly Segment.
