Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 6: The Election Commission will set into motion tomorrow the process of elections for 18 Assembly segments, which will go to polls in second phase of polling on December 2 in Jammu and Kashmir–nine seats each in the two regions as polling in third region-Ladakh would be completed in the first phase on November 25.
“A total of five districts will go to polls on second phase including Reasi, Udhampur and Poonch all having three Assembly constituencies each totaling 9 in Jammu region and Kupwara and Kulgam in Kashmir region having four and four segments respectively,” official sources told the Excelsior.
They said the Returning Officers of all 19 Assembly constituencies will issue notification tomorrow for second phase of polling inviting nominations from the candidates. The contestants can file their papers till November 14 while scrutiny of documents will be held the next day. The candidates can withdraw their nominations till November 17. Polling will be held on December 2 and counting of votes on December 23. In first phase of polling on November 25, 15 constituencies will go to polls, the nominations for which were closed yesterday.
In Jammu region, nine Assembly constituencies, which will have voting in second phase included Udhampur, Chenani (Reserve) and Ramnagar in Udhampur district, Reasi, Gool-Arnas and Gulabgarh in Reasi district, Poonch-Haveli, Mendhar and Surankote in Poonch district while five seats of Kashmir region were Karnah, Kupwara, Lolab, Handwara and Langate in Kupwara district, Noorabad, Kulgam, Home-Shalibugh and Devsar in Kulgam district.
Of 18 Assembly segments, the highest number of six are held by ruling National Conference in the outgoing Assembly followed by PDP (4), Congress (3), NPP (2), BJP, CPM and Independent (one each).
Stakes are high for almost all political parties as they would try to retain their seats but an upbeat BJP will go all out on 18 segments as it had just one seat in present Assembly and the party would have to improve its tally drastically as it was making determined bid to capture power for the first time in the State. However, the party was faced with crisis like situation in two constituencies of high voltage contest in Udhampur and Reasi with BJP leader Pawan Gupta revolting against party decision and deciding to join the electoral fray as independent candidate while sitting MLA Baldev Raj Sharma also announcing his decision to contest the election as PDP nominee after both of them were denied party mandate.
DIG Udhampur-Reasi range Gareeb Dass said they would deploy about 129 additional companies of para-military forces for six Assembly segments of Udhampur. He said 45 polling stations in Reasi district have been declared as hypersensitive. There were no hypersensitive polling stations in Udhampur districts. A total of 242 stations in both the districts have been categorized as sensitive and 520 as normal, he added.
Abdul Gani Malik (NC-Gulabgarh), Harshdev Singh (NPP-Ramnagar), Kafeel-ur-Rehman (Karnah-NC), Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami (Kulgam-CPM) and Saifullah Mir (Kupwara-NC) are five MLAs in the second face, who have scored hat-trick having won three straight Assembly elections in 1996, 2002 and 2008 and were trying their luck for fourth term.
Aijaz Ahmed Khan (Gool Arnas-Congress), Balwant Singh Mankotia (Udhampur-NPP), Abdul Gaffar Sofi (Home-Shalibugh-PDP) and Sartaj Madni (Devsar-PDP) have won two consecutive terms and will try for hat-trick.
CAPD Minister Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan (Handwara-NC), Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saifullah Mir (Kupwara-NC), Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo (Noorabad-NC), Deputy Speaker Sartaj Madni (Devsar-PDP) and Minister of State for Revenue Aijaz Khan (Congress-Gool Arnas) were among those, whose constituencies would go to polls in second phase.
Engineer Abdul Rashid from Langate is lone sitting independent MLA, who would seek second term in the second phase of polling.
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