LEH : More than 50 per cent polling was recorded in Ladakh parliamentary constituency, where there was no impact of poll boycott call given by separatist organisations.
An official spokesman said Leh, Buddhist dominated, witnessed 49.30 poll percentage till 1500 hrs. Long queues of voters could still be seen outside polling stations in both the districts.
He said poll percentage of Kargil till 1500 hrs was 57 per cent.
At a polling booth set up in Housing Colony, Leh, women outnumbered men. A long queue of women could be seen while there were just few men voters till 1100 hrs.
Mohammad Qasim, a voter said that because men are working in Army and other security agencies, they are away doing their duty.
Voters, including women, said they are voting for development, good roads and employment to youths. The Ladakh region remained cut off for six months with the rest of the State due to snowfall, they said and demanded a tunnel at Zojila for all weather road.
People, mostly women, in traditional dresses, could be seen marching towards their polling stations since early morning. Adequate security arrangements had been made to ensure free, fair and transparent election.
A total number of 1, 59,631 voters will exercise their voting rights at 531 polling stations in the constituency to decide the fate of four candidates namely Thupstan Chhewang of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Tsering Samphel Indian National Congress(INC), and two independent candidates, Ghulam Raza and Sayed Mohd Kazim.
Majority of polling booths are normal since there is no impact of separatist boycott call in the constituency, which did not witness any militant activities when entire Jammu and Kashmir had to pay heavy price due to violence during the past more than two decades.
Though the National Conference (NC) has not put up any candidate and supported the Congress nominee, but on the ground, particularly in the Muslim dominated Kargil district, the situation was entirely different.
There was a clear divide between Congress and NC who have decided to vote two independents, supported by local ulemas and Muslim organisations, including Islamic High School.
Koushuk Bakula of Congress was the first to represent the seat in the parliament in 1967 as untill that election, members from the J&K were being nominated to Lok Sabha.
Bakula again represented the constituency in 1971 while Parvati Devi, also from Congress, won in 1977. In 1980, P Namgyal won from the seat before he again won after he contested on Congress ticket in 1984.
However, in 1989 an independent Mohammad Hassan Commander got elected from the constituency but P Namgyal again won on Congress ticket in 1996.
But in 1998 Syed Hussain of National Conference (NC) got elected from the seat while Hassan Khan of (NC) won in 1999.
In 2004 Thupstan Chhewang, an independent got elected while Hassan Khan also an independent, won in 2009. (AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel