Five seats of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) witnessed a record 58. 46 per cent voter turnout in Lok Sabha polls 2024, the Election Commission of India said on May 27. This is the highest poll participation in erstwhile state in the last 35 years, the poll panel said.
The Anantnag-Rajouri seat of the Valley voted in the sixth phase of polling on May 25 marking the end to elections in all five seats of Jammu and Kashmir. Four other seats – Udhampur, Jammu, Srinagar and Baramulla – voted in earlier phases of Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
“This active participation is a huge positive for Assembly elections to be held soon so that the democratic process continues to thrive in the Union Territory,” said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar in a statement.
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The Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency recorded about 54. 84 per cent voter turnout on Saturday, as polling for the five Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir came to an end, officials said.
The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 was the first major election held in the Union Territory after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre in August 2019. The erstwhile state was also divided into two UTs – J&K and Ladakh.
Before 2019, J&K had six Lok Sabha seats, including Ladakh. Now that Ladakh is a separate UT, the parliamentary seats in J&K have been reduced to five.
All three seats of Kashmir Valley – Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri – witnessed record separate turnouts. The record voter turnout of 50.86 per cent from the three Parliamentary Constituencies in the Kashmir Valley echoes the faith of the people in the democratic process, the poll panel said.
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“The poll participation percentage witnessed 30 points jump from the last general elections in 2019 where it was 19.16 per cent. The three seats in the valley namely Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri recorded a turnout of 38.49 per cent, 59.1 per cent and 54.84 per cent respectively, which has been highest in last 3 decades. The other two sears in the UT namely Udhampur and Jammu recorded 68.27 per cent and 72.22 per cent voter turnout respectively,” it said.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won two seats of Jammu and Udhampur while the National Conference won all three seats of Kashmir Valley – Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla. The BJP fielded candidates in Jammu seats but did not contest the elections for three Valley seats.
With the conclusion of phase 6, polling for 486 of 543 seats across 28 states and UTs is completed. The final phase is scheduled to be held on June 1 and the results of all 7 phases will be declared on June 4.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance(NDA), seeking a record third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has set a target of winning 400 seats this election. The ruling alliance is challenged by the opposition parties led by the Congress under the banner of the INDIA bloc.
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Published: 27 May 2024, 03:40 PM IST
