Srinagar: A BJP candidate’s house was attacked by unidentified persons on Monday evening in old town of Baramulla district of north Kashmir, Kashmir Reader reported.
KR quoted witnesses stating that unknown men hurled a petrol bomb at the house of BJP candidate Tabasum Manzoor at Mohalla Mir Sahib in the Old town here around 8:00 pm Monday. Tabasum is currently contesting from Bagh-e-Islam ward in the ongoing municipal elections.
No loss of life or property was reported in the petrol bomb attack.
Meanwhile, police have said that they were verifying the facts of the attack.
Voting for the first phase of municipal polls began on Monday amid heightened security in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K Shaleen Kabra, 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.
