SRINAGAR: The stage is set for the second leg of the three-phase Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls on Wednesday. Tight security arrangements are in place and over 25.78 lakh voters will seal the fate of 239 candidates, including some bigwigs.
The Valley seats will see a multi-cornered contest, while in the Jammu region, the fight is mainly between the NC-Congress and the BJP.
Over 25 lakh voters consisting of 13 lakh males, over 12 lakh females and 53 third-gender electors are eligible to vote in the second phase. The voting will take place in six districts — Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal in the Valley and Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi hill districts in the Jammu region.
The polling will be held on 26 seats, including 15 in Valley and 11 in Jammu.
This is the first Assembly election in central Kashmir when there is no boycott and shutdown calls from any separatists and militants.
The prominent candidates in fray include National Conference vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who is contesting from Ganderbal and Budgam seats; J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra (Central Shalteng), J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina (Nowshera in Rajouri), Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari (from Chanapora in Srinagar).
The jailed cleric and former separatist Sarjan Ahmad Wagay alias Barkati is contesting from two constituencies — Ganderbal and Beerwah.
Barkati who along with his wife has been arrested in a terror funding case and lodged in Central Jail Srinagar, is hoping to repeat Er Rashid’s Lok Sabha poll feat. He is pitched against Omar in Ganderbal.
In the Valley seats, multi-cornered contests are taking place on most seats due to the presence of a large number of independents in the fray.
All the eight seats of Srinagar, which remained a traditional stronghold of NC, are going to vote in the second phase. Of the eight Srinagar seats, the NC is contesting seven and ally Congress in the Central Shalteng seat.
Besides the NC-Congress, PDP, Apni Party, BJP and independent candidates are also in the fray. A total of 93 candidates will fight for the eight seats.
Since this is the first Assembly polls in J&K post Article 370 abrogation, it remains to be seen whether the people, who had been upset over the scrapping of the special status and bifurcation of the erstwhile J&K state into two UTs, go with the traditional party NC or support some other parties or independent candidates.
For 11 seats in the Jammu region, including the coveted Mata Vaishno Devi seat, 79 candidates are in fray, but the main contest is between the NC-Congress alliance and the BJP. The three districts of Jammu, Poonch and Reasi have seen many terror attacks recently. Tight security arrangements have been put in place to ensure the smooth conduct of polls, especially in areas close to Line of Control.
The stakes are high for the BJP, whose fortunes are linked to the Jammu region, which has 43 assembly seats.
The BJP’s star campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief JP Nadda and several other Union ministers, have held election rallies and road shows in the Jammu region.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot have also held poll rallies in the Valley as well as the Jammu region.
8 constituencies in NC stronghold Srinagar head for polls
All the eight seats of Srinagar, which remained a traditional stronghold of National Conference, are going to vote in the second phase. Of the eight Srinagar seats, the National Conference is contesting seven seats and its ally Congress will fight in the Central Shalteng seat.
