Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, June 4: The counting of votes cast during the 5 phases of the Lok Sabha elections-2024 across 5 J&K constituencies revealed today that Independent candidates secured over 7.42 lakh votes, with the ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option also receiving over 34,000 hits.
According to the numbers provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary constituency saw 95,065 votes in favour of 10 Independent candidates, accounting for 9.34 percent of the votes counted.
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In the constituency, the total number of votes counted was 1,017,520, with zero postal votes, while the highest votes among the Independents in the constituency went to Abdul Raouf Malik, who secured 10,566 votes, Sushil Kumar Sharma, who got 9,102 votes, and Abdul Rouf Naik, who polled 9,079 votes.
In the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency, details showed that a total of 71,541 votes were cast in favor of 13 Independents, accounting for 6.91 percent of the total votes counted.
Notably, Abdul Rasheed Sheikh, who was also in the fray as an Independent, secured over 4.72 lakh votes, accounting for over 45 percent of the total votes counted in the constituency.
In Baramulla, the total number of votes counted was 1,033,900, including 7,443 postal votes, while the highest votes among the Independents in the constituency went to Suraiya Nissar, who secured 21,618 votes, and Firdous Ahmad Bhat, who got 15,722 votes.
Similarly, in the Jammu Parliamentary constituency, 12 Independent candidates received 30,589 votes out of the total 1,285,944 votes counted, with the percentage of votes these candidates stood at 2.37.
While the total number of votes counted was 1,285,944, with zero postal votes, in Jammu, the highest votes among the Independents in the constituency went to Satish Poonchi, who secured 5,948 votes.
In the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, details revealed that there were 16 Independent candidates who conducted thorough campaigns to attract voters. However, all of them combined managed to secure 53,393 votes.
The votes secured by the Independents across the constituency account for 7.9 percent of the total votes counted. The total number of votes counted was 6,75,242, including 3,309 postal votes.
The highest votes among the Independents in the constituency went to Lost Sheeban Ashai, who secured 13,071 votes; Sayim Mustafa, who polled 8,880 votes; and Jibran Firdous Dar, who secured 5498 votes, which include 67 postal votes as well.
For the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, the details revealed that the seven independent candidates managed to secure 26,643 votes, accounting for 2.39 percent of the total votes counted.
While the total number of votes counted was 1,113,727, including 7,255 postal votes, the highest votes among the independents in the constituency went to Mehraj Din, who got 9,082 votes, Amit Kumar, who polled 8,642 votes, and Mohd Ali Gujjar, who got 7,158 votes.
Lastly, regarding the NOTA option-which is a ballot option designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates contesting elections-34,518 people across the 5 Lok Sabha constituencies of J&K chose this option, with the Udhampur Parliamentary constituency recording the highest number of 12,938 NOTA hits.
The rest of the constituencies recorded the following NOTA votes: Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary 5,967; Baramulla recorded 4,984; Jammu 4,631; and Srinagar 5,998.
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