Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 25: The Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary constituency today recorded 53 per cent polling, highest after 1984 as long queues were seen outside the Polling Stations since morning.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P K Pole said that 18.36 lakh voters were registered for the Anantnag-Rajouri LS seat. In the J&K for the all five phases of Lok Sabha elections, total poll percentage including the Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary seat, has been recorded at 58 percent.
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Addressing a press conference here, Pole said that the previous highest voting for the Anantnag-Rajouri LS seat was 50 percent in 1996. In 1984, the Parliamentary seat had recorded 70 percent voting.
“The overall voter turnout across all five Parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir was 58 percent, surpassing the 49.58 percent recorded in 2014 and the 47.99 percent in 1996,” he said.
Pole expressed gratitude to the voters, polling staff, security personnel and candidates for their roles in achieving this historic turnout. “The credit goes to the voters for making new records,” he stated, emphasizing the collective effort that made the electoral process a success.
Anantnag-Rajouri’s 53 percent turnout marks a significant increase from the dismal 9 percent voting in 2019. Giving the break up, Pole said that Surankote reported the highest turnout at 68 percent, while Kulgam and Anantnag saw lower participation with 32 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Migrant polling booths also recorded over 50 percent turnout, with 9,000 postal ballots cast.
A total of 9,000 polling staff were deployed in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency to facilitate the voting process. Across Jammu and Kashmir, the turnout percentages for the other constituencies were as follows: Baramulla at 59.10 percent, Srinagar at 39 percent, Udhampur at 68 percent, and Jammu at 72.22 percent.
Amid stringent security measures across the entire constituency due to its sensitive nature after recent militant strikes across Pir Panjal, long queues of voters were seen outside polling stations since morning.
The constituency spanned 18 Assembly segments, with the Election Commission establishing 2,338 Polling Stations to accommodate over 18.36 lakh voters.
Out of 542 Polling Stations in Rajouri district, 278 were categorized as sensitive. Additionally, 45 Polling Stations were within the direct firing range from across the Line of Control (LoC). In Poonch district, 55 out of 171 Polling Stations were located along the LoC.
The PDP president Mehbooba Mufti staged a sit-in outside the Police Station Bijbehara against the arrest of her workers by the police.
“This was a small symbol of democracy here and they want it to finish. What can I do. They have arrested our workers ahead of vote,” she said.
Police, however, rejected claims by PDP chief say that “detention are a very few”, and are those who have “tainted past”.
“Claims were made by a political party that their workers have been detained. Firstly, detention are very few and restricted only to those who have tainted the past and based on credible inputs of potential threats to law and order and security on polling day,” Anantnag police said in a post on ‘X’. “Mostly they are OGWs and are taken into preventive custody for ensuring a safe and peaceful election,” it said.
The CEO Pole said police picked up some persons with past records and OGWs in the constituency as a preventive measure. He said to ensure smooth and peaceful polling police took some preventive measures.
“Either it is Rajouri, Poonch or Anantnag- Bijbehara side, some terror incident did take place before or during the campaign and keeping in view those, police took some preventive measures,” he said.
“Police picked up persons with past records and OGWs as a preventive measure. But we will ensure that no innocent person with no such past record should be arrested.”
Sr Assembly Voting % age No segment (tentative)
1 Zainpora 40.00 %
2 D.H.Pora 55.00 %
3 Kulgam 32.00 %
4 Devsar 44.00 %
5 Dooru 46.00 %
6 Kokernag 52.00 %
7 Anantnag West 36.09 %
8 Anantnag 33.48 %
9 Srigufwara Bijbehara 43.00 %
10 Shangus Anantnag East 43.00 %
11 Pahalgam 56.00%
Total Migrant Special PS Polling
Approx. 39 % overall (at Udhampur 50 % and Delhi 53%): 40%
Total Postal Votes received 9761 (till date )
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