Voters, old and young, continue to throng polling centres in Jammu-Reasi LS seat (Lead)

Jammu, April 26 (IANS) A 105-year-old man, a 97-year-old woman, supported by her young grandson, and a newly-married couple were among those who turned out to vote in Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha constituency on Friday, with an increasing turnout as the day progressed leading to 57.76 per cent polling till 3 p.m.

Polling started at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.

There are 22 contestants in the field, but the main electoral battle is between Jugal Kishore Sharma of the BJP and Raman Bhalla of the Congress. Sharma is seeking re-election for the third time from the constituency while Bhalla, a former J&K minister, is supported by the party's INDIA bloc partner, the National Conference.

Akhnoor voting segment in Jammu district polled 65.78 per cent votes till 3 p.m., which is the highest among all the voting segments of this Lok Sabha seat so far.

Among others, Bahu polled 49.31 per cent, Bishnah (SC) 59.85 per cent, Chhamb 60.19 per cent, Gulabgarh (ST) 63.07 per cent, Jammu East 53.33 per cent, Jammu North 51.95 per cent, Jammu West 50.17 per cent, Kalakote-Sunderbani 59.39 per cent, Marh (SC) 60.71 per cent, Nagrota 61.76 per cent, RS Pura-Jammu South 52.37 per cent, Ramgarh (SC), 58.95 per cent, Reasi 64.19 per cent, Samba 61.36 per cent, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi 64.77 per cent, Suchetgarh (SC) 55.70 per cent, and Vijaypur 56.39 per cent.

Voting segments of the constituency are spread over the Jammu and Reasi districts, Ramgarh, Vijaypur, and Samba in Samba district, and Sunderbani-Kalakote in Rajouri district.

As the day progressed, queues outside the polling stations also became longer as every voter, particularly first-time voters, as well as those living in border areas, turned out to exercise their franchise.

Women voters also came out in large numbers.

Janki Devi, 97, who was holding the hand of her grandson for assistance, cast her vote at a polling station in Khabbal, and Sardar Avtar Singh Raina, 105, voted in Jammu, as per election officials. A newly-married couple, still clad in their wedding finery, reached a polling station at Mahore in Reasi to vote.

Long queues were seen in Jammu district and Ramgarh, Vijaypur and Samba segments of Samba district.

Better roads, development, education, connectivity, healthcare etc are the main issues of the urban voters.

The large numbers of border voters pouring out to use their democratic rights proved that peace on the border and the country’s capacity to protect their lives, agricultural fields, homes, and livestock are their main considerations.

ECI officials said contingency plans were in place in case of any disruption in border polling stations.

There are 17,80,738 voters in the constituency - 9,21,053 males, 8,59,657 females, and 28 third-gender voters.

EC has set up 2416 polling stations including 666 urban and 1,750 rural.

CCTV camera monitoring, webcasting and deployment of poll mobile senior supervisory staff are some of the measures to ensure free and fair polling in the constituency. Thirteen polling stations which come in the communication shadow zone are being monitored through satellite phone, wireless, and human runners to ensure fairness of the voting process.

Adequate security has been provided throughout the constituency while the polling stations were sanitised security-wise a day ahead of the polling. Hundreds of state police and those of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel have been deployed to provide a safe and secure voting environment.

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