The first phase of the 4-phase elections for Municipal bodies in Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of 13 years on Monday witnessed virtually deserted polling booths in Kashmir whereas long queues were seen in the Jammu and Ladakh regions where men and women turned up in large numbers to exercise their right to franchise from early morning when the polling began at 7 am.

More than 70 percent polling was reported from throughout the state but final figures are awaited as reports from far-flung areas are yet to be received.

The Jammu and Ladakh regions rejected the poll boycott call of Pakistan backed terrorists and separatists and registered high percentage of polling. An official spokesman said that the overall polling percentage in Jammu was around 65 percent and in the Valley it was nearly 18 percent.

Amid tight security arrangements, except stray incidents of stone pelting in Bandipura district of North Kashmir, the polling remained by and large peaceful.  BJP candidate Adil Ahmad Buhru received minor injuries due to stone pelting in Bandipura town. Stones were thrown at him when he was on his way to cast his vote in Ward 15 of the town. A woman was also injured in stone pelting.

The Rajouri and Poonch districts along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) registered highest polling of 83 and 76 percent respectively. Braving low temperatures in the cold desert of Leh and Kargil districts, the electorate reached the polling booths early in the morning and polled 58 and 81 percent votes.

The Kashmir valley observed a shutdown on the call of the separatists. Train services and internet remained suspended as a precautionary measure. The National Conference, PDP and CPI (M) have boycotted the elections on the issue of alleged attempts to tamper with the Article 35A thereby making it a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress on most of the seats for which election will be held in four phases.

During the first two hours, only 12 votes were polled in the ward number 5 of Central Kashmir’s Budgam that went to polls. Here, the contest is directly between the BJP and the Congress. Budgam district has a total of 72 wards. However, polling is being held only in one ward as 26 wards did not field even a single candidate and in 45 wards candidates won unopposed.

According to an official statement, voting percentage in Anantnag was 7.3%, Budgam 17%, Bandipura 3.4%, Baramula 5.1%, and Srinagar 6.2%. Kupwara in North Kashmir registered highest polling of 32.3 percent in the Valley.

For the first phase, 78 candidates have already been elected unopposed out of which 69 are from Kashmir where fear had gripped the voters due to the threat of terrorists.

Poor polling of about 6.2 percent was witnessed for the 72 seat Srinagar Municipal Corporation. However, polling percentage for the Jammu Municipal Corporation was to the tune of 64 percent. Polling for the 7 municipal committees of Jammu district was between 80 and 92 percent.

According to the chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra, 820 polling stations had been established across the state for today’s phase of polling. Of these, 150 polling stations were in Kashmir and 670 in Jammu. 138 polling stations in Kashmir were declared hypersensitive while in Jammu division 52 polling stations were hypersensitive.

1204 candidates are in the fray for 321 Municipal Wards for the first phase. The total electorate for the first phase was 586064.