Peaceful borders spur brisk voting near LoC in Jammu
Peaceful and brisk polling was recorded in the Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu and Kashmir which has nine Assembly segments adjacent to the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday. The turnout was 72.32%.
The Jammu-Reasi seat has 18 Assembly segments, and nine of them crossed 70% polling, with Akhnoor recording 78.27%, Bishnah 76.54%, Chhamb 75.76%, Gulabgarh 73.93%, Marh 79.31%, Nagrota 75.63%, Reasi 74.19%, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi 79.43%, and Vijaypur 75.67%.
In the past, Akhnoor and Vijaypur were badly hit by cross-border shelling in Jammu.
“Akhnoor has witnessed peace in the past ve years. I voted for those who would ensure our safety and security along the IB,” Rajni Khemu, a voter from Akhnoor, said.
Citizenship rights
Hundreds of West Pakistan refugees, who were granted citizenship rights by the Centre after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, also came out to vote in the Jammu-Samba belt.
“Finally, justice was meted out to our community. We were allowed to vote in the Lok Sabha polls and not the Assembly polls. Now, we can choose representatives at the national and local level too,” Krishna Singh, a voter, said.
The Schedule Caste-reserved segments of Akhnoor, Bishnah, Ramgarh, Marh and Suchetgarh witnessed brisk polling throughout the day, o¥cials said.
The impressive polling gures come despite threat to security after recent incidents of militant violence in the Union Territory.
As many as 22 candidates were in the fray in the constituency, which has over 17.8 lakh voters.
A total of 2,416 polling stations have been set up across the constituency.
The seat is witnessing a direct contest between the BJP’s Jugal Kishore and the INDIA bloc’s Raman Bhalla.