Pakistan’s frequent shelling in the civilian areas of Jammu, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts, that are part of the Jammu Lok Sabha constituency which will go to polls on Thursday in the first of the 5-phase elections, is keeping the election authorities on their toes and they had to make contingency polling arrangements for 224 booths that are close to the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LOC) in case Pakistan troops resort to shelling on the polling day.

The Uri area of the Baramulla constituency in North Kashmir, which will also go to polls on Thursday, had also witnessed indiscriminate shelling by Pakistani troops. Elaborate security arrangements have been made in the entire constituency.

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Pakistan has a notorious reputation of targeting Indian villages along the LoC during the polls. The main town of Poonch was extensively shelled during the polling in 2002 when several persons were injured.

Pakistani troops have, during the past few days, been targeting with mortars and artillery the Nowshera and Sunderbani sectors in Rajouri and Mendhar, Balakote, Mankote, Krishna Ghati, Kirni and Shahpur in Poonch district. Several civilians have been killed and many injured.

About 33 lakh voters will decide the fate of 33 candidates who are in the fray in the Jammu and Baramulla Parliamentary constituencies. The twin constituencies have 3365037 registered electors including 1716933 males, 1600897 females, 47155 service voters (46652 males and 503 females) and 52 transgender.

For the smooth conduct of polls, 4489 polling stations have been set up in the twin constituencies. A total number of 24 candidates are in the fray in the Jammu constituency but the main contest is between the sitting BJP MP Jugal Kishore and Congress’s Raman Bhalla.

The Jammu Lok Sabha constituency is spread over 20 Assembly segments of four districts including Jammu, Samba, Poonch and Rajouri with 2047299 electors including 2005734 General voters and 41565 service voters.

Among the general voters, 1040876 are males and 964838 female electors. For the smooth conduct of election exercise, the authorities have set up 2740 polling stations across the Parliamentary constituency.

In 2014 general elections, the number of voters in the constituency was 1848155 while it has increased to 2047299 in 2019 elections. Jugal Kishore of BJP had emerged winner by defeating his close rival Madan Lal Sharma of INC.

While the National Conference (NC) and PDP have not fielded their candidates in Jammu against the Congress, but in Baramulla they are all contesting against each other. Prominent among those in the fray are Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir of Congress, Mohammad Maqbool War of BJP, Abdul Qayoom Wani of PDP, Mohammad Akbar Lone of NC, Raja Aijaz Ali of Peoples Conference and a former MLA Engineer Rashid.

Interestingly, the electorate in Baramulla had in the recent elections defied the poll boycott call of separatists and terrorist outfits and a high percentage of polling was registered in the district as compared to other parts of Kashmir.

The constituency is spread over across 15 Assembly segments of three districts of north Kashmir including Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora. The Baramulla parliamentary seat has  1317738 electors of which 1312148 are registered as general voters and 5590 as service voters. As many as 1749 polling stations have been established in the constituency.

Muzaffar Hussain Baig of PDP had won the last election by defeating his nearest rival Sharief Uddin Shariq of NC with a margin of 29219 votes.