In the absence of any poll boycott call from separatists or fear of terrorist violence, the border Lok Sabha constituency of Baramulla in north Kashmir broke all previous records by polling the highest ever 59 per cent votes in the fifth phase of the election on Monday, said the election office.

This is the highest polling in the constituency in the past 26 years.

The frontier constituency of the Baramulla is dotted with infiltration routes of Pakistan backed terrorists.

Long queues of people were seen outside the polling booths across the constituency.

Enthusiasm among the electorate was visible right from early morning when people turned out in hordes at the polling stations across the Lok Sabha constituency.

This is the first major election in Jammu and Kashmir after scrapping of the Article 370 on 5 August 2019 by the Modi government.

The highest polling percentage in the past 28 years was about 50 per cent in 1996.

Polling percentage in Baramulla was 34.89 per cent in 2019 which was the highest among the three Lok Sabha constituencies in the Kashmir valley, 39.13 pre cent in 2014 and 41.84 per cent in 2009.

Former chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah is locked in a tough contest with Sajad Lone of Peoples Conference, Faiyaz Ahmed Mir of PDP and jailed Engineer Rashid who is contesting as an independent. Besides, there are 18 other candidates in the fray.

Brisk voting was witnessed in the Baramulla constituency where 21.56 per cent polling was recorded till 11am, 35.08 per cent till 1 pm and 45.22 per cent at 3 pm.

The Handwara segment, which is considered the stronghold of Lone, had recorded 53.06 per cent polling till 3 pm and it was the highest in the constituency. This was followed by 50.97 per cent votes in Langate which Engineer Rashid has represented in the Assembly twice.

The northmost Uri segment along the Line of Control (LOC) also recorded 50.20 per cent polling till 3 pm.

Omar appealed to the people of Baramulla to come out in large numbers and cast their vote which is the biggest power in a democracy.