J&K Assembly Polls Phase 3 LIVE: Voting begins; over 20,000 polling staff mobilised

Jammu and Kashmir goes to polls today (October 1, 2024), for the Phase 3 of its Assembly elections to decide the electoral fate of 415 candidates including two former deputy CMs Tara Chand and Muzaffar Beig.. More than 20,000 polling staff have been mobilised across the seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Jammu zone, Anand Jain, said adequate security arrangements have been put in place in the poll-bound areas to ensure “terror-free and peaceful” polling.
The highlight of the voting in this phase will be the participation of West Pakistani refugees from the Valmiki Samaj and Gorkha communities, who got voting rights in the Assembly, urban local bodies and panchayat elections only after the abrogation of Article 370. They last voted in panchayat and urban local bodies polls in 2018.
Over 39.18 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 5,060 polling stations in this crucial phase, covering 40 Assembly segments in Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir, on October 1.
The voter turnout was robust in the earlier phases, with 61.38% participation recorded in the first phase on September 18 and 57.31% in the second phase on September 26.
Source:thehindu.com