SRINAGAR: There is no woman among 33 candidates in the fray from Baramulla and Jammu parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which will go to polls in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 11.
In the two parliamentary constituencies, 48.2 per cent of the voters are women. The Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha seats have never been won by a woman. Since the first parliamentary elections for the two seats in 1967, no woman has even been the runner-up.
Twenty-four candidates are in the fray for the Jammu- Poonch seat, spread over the four districts of Poonch, Rajouri, Samba and Jammu, and comprising 20 Assembly segments.
The main contest is between BJP's sitting MP and former state president Jugal Kishore, and Raman Bhalla of the Congress. The other prominent candidates include former BJP minister Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh.
About 20,00,485 voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise from the seat. Of them, 10,38,497 are men and 9,61,960 are women. The authorities have set up 2,740 polling stations at 1,932 locations for smooth conduct of the elections.
In the Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency in north Kashmir, nine candidates are in the fray. The constituency is spread over the three districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora, and comprises 15 Assembly segments.
There is a multi-cornered contest here between Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir of the Congress, Mohammad Maqbool War of BJP, Abdul Qayoom Wani of PDP, Mohammad Akbar Lone of National Conference and Er Sheikh Abdur Rashid, an independent.
The Baramulla constituency has 13,08,541 eligible voters, of which 6,74,417 are men and 6,34,083 are women.
Kupwara district out of total electorate of 441075, 226495 are males and 214569 females. In Baramull district, the total electorate is 637501. Of them 328422 are males and 309065 females. In Bandipora districts out of total 233572 voters, 121140 are males and 112425 females.
The authorities have set up 1,749 polling stations at 1,387 locations in the constituency.