Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 25: The Jammu Parliamentary constituency will go to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections amid tight security arrangements tomorrow.
Over 17.81 lakh eligible voters are set to exercise their franchise across 2,416 Polling Stations to decide the fate of 22 candidates.
The officials said that all arrangements have been put in place for an incident free poll.
“Security and other related arrangements are in place to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting. A contingency plan has also been also worked out to ensure no disruption in polling along the borders,” they added.
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Polling will take place from 7 am to 6 pm, with a mock poll in the presence of polling agents before voting begins.
“Voting will continue even after 6 pm if the voters queue is still there in the Polling Station premises to ensure their right to vote,” the officials said.
This is the second Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir to go to polls in this election. Earlier, polling was held in the Udhampur seat on April 19, recording a voter turnout of over 68 per cent.
Around 2,416 Polling Stations are set to go to polls in the second phase across four districts of Jammu, Samba, Reasi, and Rajouri’s one Kalakote-Sunderbani Assembly segment.
The election staff, including the Presiding Officers, will be stationed in every Polling Station.
“In total, more than 15,000 polling staff, including reserves, will be deployed on duty on the polling day. Among the districts, Jammu has 50 critical booths, while Samba has around 12 border polling stations,” the officials said.
As many as 2,416 Polling Stations, including 158 along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC), have been set up in the constituency, they said.
The officials said there will be 10 polling booths managed by women – also called as pink Polling Stations – 10 polling booths manned by specially abled persons and nine by youths.
There will be 12 green Polling Stations in order to spread messages about environmental concern.
Twenty-two candidates are in the fray from the constituency.
A direct contest is on the cards between sitting BJP MP Jugal Kishore Sharma and INDIA bloc candidate Ramban Bhalla, the working president of the J-K Congress unit.
Jagdish Raj of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Advocate Ankur Sharma of the Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal are two other prominent faces contesting the seat.
The BJP candidate, seeking his third term, defeated Bhalla by a margin of over three lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had won the seat in 2014 as well.
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