After Serial Terror Attacks, Third Round of
Voting in Jammu and Kashmir: 10 Developments
At many
places, voters lined up at polling stations much before the start of the voting
time at 8 AM.
While
Beerwah in Budgam district registered 18.16 per cent polling, Sopore saw only
four per cent voting till 10 AM, the officials said.
Uri saw
over 10 per cent polling, Rafiabad 12 per cent while Gulmarg saw over 15 per
cent voting. Chadoora recorded 15.30 per cent, Budgam 15.88 per cent, Khan
Sahib 16.85, Charari Sharief 13.54 per cent, Tral 5.41 per cent, Pampore 12.28
per cent, Pulwama 7.62 and Rajpora 13 per cent, the officials said.
Police
said a petrol bomb was hurled by unidentified men at a polling station in
Gulmarg constituency. No casualties were reported in the incident. Barring this
incident, polling across all 16 constituencies of the state, was going on
peacefully.
Among
the areas voting today are Uri, Sopore and Tral, where terrorists struck on
Friday. The worst attack was at Uri, where terrorists sneaked into an army camp
and killed nine soldiers and three policemen. Grenade attacks took place in
Tral on Friday and Sunday.
Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah, who is seeking re-election in the third round of
staggered elections in Jammu and Kashmir, has blamed the terror strikes on hype
over the turnout, saying it was like "walking into a tiger's cage and
pulling its tail."
On
Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar - the first
by the BJP in over a decade - and in Jammu's Samba. "The finger that
presses the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) button is stronger than the one on
the AK-47 trigger," PM Modi said, congratulating people for defeating
"the bullet with the ballot."
Besides
Mr Abdullah, who is contesting from Beerwah in Budgam, three state ministers
and 10 more lawmakers are among 144 candidates today. The ruling National
Conference holds only four of the 16 seats going to polls; the opposition PDP
represents nine.
Elections
are also being held in 17 of the 81 seats in Jharkhand today. The
constituencies are spread over eight districts -- Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Bokaro,
Chatra, Seraikella/Kharsawan, Ramgarh, Kodarma and Giridih.
The next
phase of elections - the fourth - will be held on December 14. The counting of
votes is on December 23.
Pasted
from <http://www.ndtv.com