Srinagar: The second phase of the Urban Local Bodies polls commenced at 6 a.m. on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Srinagar’s Shaheed Gunj Ward 22-B till 9 a.m., 20 votes were cast while as in Shuthra Shahi Ward-22, only three votes were polled. In ward no 37 total vote count was 13 and in Ward-35, 30 votes were cast.
In Bemina Degree College where 9 booths have been set up, 9 votes were cast till 9 a.m.
At MC Sumbal, 748 votes were cast, marking it with 9.41 percent of the polling percentage.
At Watergam Rafiabad, Baramulla, only two votes were cast in the first 2 hours. A total of 1,029 candidates are in fray across Jammu and Kashmir.
Government has put elaborate security measures for “incident free” polling as the voting began at 6 am.
Officials said that the voting would take place at 544 polling stations across Jammu and Kashmir and it would end at 4 pm.
881 candidates in Jammu division and 148 in Kashmir division – are in the fray for 263 municipal wards, including 49 in Kashmir and 214 in Jammu.
As many as 270 polling stations have been designated for voting in Kashmir Division and 274 in Jammu Division, they added.
The officials said the total electorate in these wards is 346,980 – 128,104 in Jammu Division belonging to 18 Municipal bodies and 218,876 in Kashmir Division of five Municipal bodies.
The joint resistance leadership comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have called for a shutdown in the poll bound areas while government has declared holiday for the day in the municipal areas concerned.