A total of 37 seats out of which 17 are in Kashmir and 20 in Jammu region are up for polls as voting will begin at 7 a.m to 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Voters queue up at a polling station to cast their votes (Photo: IANS)
Polling for the fifth phase of District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir is began on Thursday at 7 a.m.
A total of 37 seats out of which 17 are in Kashmir and 20 in Jammu region are up for polls as voting will begin at 7 a.m to 2 p.m. on Thursday. Besides DDC elections, voting will also take place for 58 sarpanch and 218 vacant panch seats.
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In the 17 DDC seats in Kashmir division, 155 candidates, including 30 females are in fray and in Jammu division 144 candidates including 40 females are in fray for the 20 seats.
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In an exclusive interview to Indian Express, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehboob Mufti, defended contesting the District Development Council (DDC) elections, the first electoral exercise after scrapping the special status given J-K said that the ‘filed would be open for BJP and its proxies’ if they did not contest the elections
As per state election commission, 8,27,519 electors, including 4,33,285 males and 3,94,234 females, are eligible to cast their votes.
The state election commission has made elaborate arrangements and has ensured that all the Covid-19 protocols and precautions are followed in the polling process.
In the fourth phase of DDC elections, on Monday 34 seats from J-K went for poll that saw a voter turnout of over 50 per cent.
In the first phase on November 28, the voter turnout was of 51.76 per cent while in the second phase on December 1, voter turnouts was of 48.62 per cent and in the third phase on December 4 registered a turnout of 50.53 per cent.
The Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council (DDC) elections are being held in eight phases and will be concluded on December 19 and the results will be declared on December 22.
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