Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 17: Election process for two Lok Sabha constituencies-Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla-Kupwara-which will go to polls in first phase on April 11, will start tomorrow with issuance of notification by the concerned Returning Officers (ROs)
Lok Sabha elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir in five phases. While Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla-Kupwara seat will have elections in Phase-I, Udhampur-Doda and Srinagar-Budgam seats will have polling in Phase-2. Anantnag-Pulwama seat of South Kashmir will go to polls in third, fourth and fifth phases while Ladakh seat will see voting in fifth phase.
Notification for setting the election process in motion will be issued tomorrow morning by the Returning Officers of Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha seats. The candidates can file their nomination papers till March 25 and scrutiny of documents will take place on March 26.
As per election schedule for first phase, the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers till March 28 while polling for both the seats will be held on April 11. Campaigning for the two seats will end on the evening of April 9.
Authorities were in the process of finalizing polling stations, staff, their training and deployment of additional Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for the two constituencies, which will go to polls in the first phase, sources said, adding that preparations to ensure smooth conduct of voting were in the final stage.
Sources said the additional para-military personnel will start arriving in the two Parliamentary constituencies going to polling in first phase shortly and will be deployed well ahead of the polling.
“The polling stations will be sensitized in advance,” they said, adding that security arrangements were being made for election rallies to be addressed by national and State unit leaders of different political parties.
BJP and National Conference have already announced name of the candidates for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha constituency. While BJP has repeated its sitting MLA, Jugal Kishore Sharma, the National Conference has fielded former Chief Secretary of the State, BR Kundal. The Congress, the People’s Democratic Party, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Panthers Party and other national and regional political parties could also join the fray on Jammu-Poonch seat, sources said.
The Election Commission will be appointing Special Observers for the elections including IAS and IPS officers from other States. The Returning Officer will deploy Micro Observers.
Meanwhile, election process for Udhampur-Doda and Srinagar-Budgam Lok Sabha seats will also start on April 19, a day after Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla-Kupwara constituencies.
The candidates can file nomination papers for Udhampur-Doda and Srinagar-Budgam seats up to March 26 while scrutiny of documents will take place on March 27 and candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on March 29.
Polling for these two segments will be held on April 18.
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