Baramulla, May 20: A large number of voters continued to pour into polling stations on Monday in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency where 35.08 percent of the electorate had exercised its franchise till 1 P.M. Figures released by the Election Commission (EC) said that till 1 P.M. a 35.08 percent voter turnout had been witnessed in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency. Of these, Bandipora witnessed 35.77 percent, Baramulla 31.68 percent, Beerwah 38.00 percent, Budgam 33.72 percent, Gulmarg 34.37 percent, Gurez (ST) 30.36 percent, Handwara 38.76 percent, Karnah 37.61 percent, Kupwara 33.53 percent, Langate 40.53 percent, Lolab 37.08 percent, Pattan 32.82 percent, Rafiabad 37.58 percent, Sonawari 36.26 percent, Sopore 19.44 percent, Trehgam 35.78 percent, Uri 38.47 percent and Wagoora Kreeri 32.94 percent. Voting started on a positive note on Monday in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency as a bright sunny day greeted the electors at festively decorated polling stations. Voters started queuing up at various polling stations in the 18 voting segments of this constituency right from the morning. There are 17,37,865 voters including 8,75,831 males and 8,62,000 females, besides 34 third gender voters in this constituency. Of these, there are around 17,128 Persons with Disabilities and 527 people above the age of 100 years, who will be exercising their franchise.The EC has set 2,103 polling stations across 4 districts of Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and parts of Budgam those fall in this constituency.
Special Polling Stations have been established for Migrant Voters of Kashmir division. A total of 26 Special Polling Stations have been established with 21 polling stations in Jammu, 4 in Delhi and 1 in Udhampur District respectively. More than 8,000 polling staff, including reserves, were on duty, besides, there are 28 border polling stations in Kupwara and Baramulla districts. There are 23 candidates in the fray here while the main contest is going to be between Omar Abdullah, former chief minister and National Conference (NC) candidate, Sajad Gani Lone of the People’s Conference (PC) and Engineer Rasheed of the Awami Itihad Party (AIP). Voting started at 7 AM and will end at 6 PM. However, voting will continue even after 6 PM if the voters’ queue is still there in the Polling Station premises to exercise their right to vote. All 2,103 polling stations of this constituency have CCTV cameras for live webcasting and in total 4,206 cameras and 50 additional CCTV cameras at main entrances of the polling stations have been deployed.
Polling is being monitored through 24X7 Integrated Command and Control Rooms established at CEO level with latest technologies and all the polling stations will be monitored throughout the day by a tech savvy team.
