The highest among the three phases, 65.48 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in the 40 assembly constituencies across Jammu and Kashmir where voting was held on Tuesday in the third and the final phase of election. Polling will continue till 6 pm.

The assembly election in J&K held after a gap of ten years witnessed polling in three phases.

The first phase recorded 57.31 per cent polling, while 61.38 per cent votes were cast in the second phase.

This phase of polling is considered crucial for government formation as voting was held for the highest number of 40 seats in 7 districts. Earlier in the first and second phases 24 and 26 seats respectively went to polls of the UT.

The electoral exercise witnessed the Balmiki community and West Pakistan refugees voting in J&K’s assembly election for the first time in 77 years. These segments of the society were empowered to vote after the J&K Reorganisation Act came into force following abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019.

Polling booths in the areas where these two communities reside witnessed heavy polling since early morning.

Turnout of voters was high also in the assembly constituencies along the International Border with Pakistan and the Line of Control (LoC). However, polling in the Jammu city remained slow till noon.

Jammu’s Chhamb assembly constituency along the Pakistan border recorded the highest polling percentage of 77.35 per cent.

While polling in most of the 24 seats of the Jammu division crossed 70 per cent, it went beyond 60 per cent in many of the 16 seats of the Kashmir valley.

Polling started at 7 AM in all 5,060 polling stations across 40 Assembly Constituencies of seven districts namely Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora in Kashmir Division; and Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua and Samba in Jammu Division. Earlier, mock drills were also conducted in all the polling stations.

From early morning, long queues of enthusiastic voters are being witnessed, waiting for their turn to exercise their right to franchise.

In this phase, 39,18,220 voters were eligible to cast their ballots, comprising 20,09,033 male, 19,09,130 female and 57 third-gender voters.

This phase will determine the fate of 415 candidates.

The final phase will determine the fate of several prominent political figures, including 17 former ministers, eight ex-MLAs, and four officials who took voluntary retirement from services (VRS) to join the electoral race.

Among the top contenders in the Kashmir division are former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beg and former ministers, Taj Mohiud-Din, Sajjad Lone, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Ghulam Hassan Mir, and Imran Ansari, representing major political parties such as the People’s Conference, Apni Party, National Conference (NC), and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Key figures from Jammu are former deputy chief ministers Tara Chand (Chhamb), Mula Ram (Marh), Sham Sharma and Ajay Sadhotra (Jammu North), Devender Rana (Nagrota) along with other senior politicians including Raman Bhalla and Choudhary Gharu Ram (Jammu South-RS Pura), are also vying for victory.

Notable candidates include BJP national secretary Narinder Singh and former MLA Devender Singh Rana, contesting from Jammu South-RS Pura and Nagrota, respectively.