Srinagar: Amid JRL called boycott and shutdown, 47 panchayat blocks including 16 in Kashmir, 21 in Jammu and 10 in Ladakh region are going to polls for first phase in a nine-phased election process commences today.
The polling begun at 8 am and will end at 2 pm.
While Joint Resistance leadership has called for a complete shutdown against the election process, National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have boycotted the process.
While shutdown is being observed in almost all the districts of the valley, all the shops and business establishments are shut and traffic is off the roads.
“427 candidates are in the fray for 536 sarpanch halaqas and 5951 candidates for 4048 panch wards in J&K,”
J&K’s chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra said in a statement on Friday.
Polling will be held at 3296 polling stations across J&K, including 1303 in Kashmir and 1993 in Jammu division, on Saturday.
While 5585 candidates are in the fray for 420 sarpanch and 1845 panch seats in phase one, 85 sarpanchs and 1676 panchs have already been elected unopposed in phase one.
“687 polling stations have been categorised as hypersensitive including 491 in Kashmir and 196 in Jammu division,” Kabra said.
He said in areas going to polls in the first phase, 445059 electors will be voting for sarpanch seats while 272792 will be polling for panch constituencies.
