Srinagar: Over 1,000 candidates will participate in the second phase of the municipal polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, officials told PTI. The four phase elections began on October 8 and will end on October 16.
Officials said Tuesday security arrangements have been put in place for smooth conduct of the second phase elections which will take place from 6 am to 4 pm.
The second phase will cover a total of 384 wards spanning 13 districts across the state – seven of which are in the Valley, officials said.
They said 1,198 nominations were received for these wards and after scrutiny and withdrawal, 1,095 contestants are in the fray for the polls.
Out of 1,095 candidate, 65 have won the polls uncontested, including 61 from Kashmir Valley.
They said no polling will take place at 70 wards in the Valley as no nomination was received.
No nomination was submitted in all 13 wards of Frisal municipal committee of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, while only one nomination was received for 13 wards of Beerwah municipal committee in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, officials said.
A police official said security arrangements have been put in place for the smooth conduct of the polls in all the areas were people would vote Wednesday, including in the 20 wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) in the city here.
Earlier, the CEO said that the overall polling percentage across the state in the first phase of Municipal Polls-2018 has been recorded at 56.7 percent.
According to the official figures, poll percentage at 4:00 on Monday is as below:
Srinagar recorded 6.2 per cent polling; Baramulla 5.1 per cent; Jammu district: 63.83; Kargil 78.2; Leh: 55.2; Poonch 73.1; Rajouri 81 per cent. 109 votes polled out of 642 in Budgam at the end of voting at 4 pm (17 per cent). 32.30 per cent votes were polled in Kupwara till 4 pm and 3.38 per cent votes polled in Bandipora.
National Conference on Monday said that ongoing ULB poll has turned out to be an exercise in waste as first phase of polling has witnessed a record low poll percentage in the valley with as many as 215 candidates getting elected unopposed with 177 wards having no candidates.
The Joint Resistance Leadership comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Monday appreciated people’s rejection and boycott of the ‘sham ULB elections being forcibly held by GoI in J&K, and the exemplary complete protest shutdown against it.’
In a statement, the JRL said that this election has violated the very definition of the democratic process, making a mockery of it as the identity of the contesting public representatives is not known to the public nor the area going to polls.
“Secrecy manipulation and bribery are the hallmark of this twisted exercise,” the JRL statement said.
Earlier, Home Minister of India, Rajnath Singh, two days ahead of upcoming municipal elections, claimed at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that 90 per cent people in the state would like to participate the panchayat and urban local bodies polls and blamed Pakistan for the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir region, PTI reported.
