Polling for the second phase of the urban local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir began on a brisk note on Wednesday. Thirteen districts of Jammu and Kashmir will vote to elect local bodies members today.
As per the Election Commission of India, a total of 1,198 candidates have fielded their nomination but following withdrawal and scrutiny, only 1,095 candidates are in the fray for the elections in the second phase.
Notably, out of 1,095, as many as 65 candidates have won the elections uncontested, including 61 from the Kashmir Valley. The second phase will cover a total of 384 wards.
Security has been beefed up across the state so that the polls can be conducted in a peaceful manner. Majority of the candidates have been provided with either cluster security in hotels or individually in the Valley.
The polls to urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in four phases with the first completed Monday.
Just 8.3 per cent of the electorate voted in the first-phase of the urban local body polls on Monday wile Kargil recorded the highest turnout of 78 per cent. Polling in 83 wards of the valley began at 7 am and ended at 4 pm amidst tight security.
"Only 7,057 voters of the 84,692 eligible persons turned up to vote in the wards which went to polls Monday. The polling was by and large peaceful," an official said.
The third phase covering 207 Wards is scheduled to take place on October 13, and the fourth phase covering 132 Wards on October 16. The counting of votes will take place on October 20.
The last poll to the Municipal bodies in the state was held in 2005 through ballots and the five-year term expired in February 2010.
The polls were announced last month but two major political parties -- the National Conference (NC) and the PDP -- boycotted the elections accusing the Centre of not taking a firm stand on the protection of Article 35A of the Constitution which is facing a legal challenge in the Supreme Court.
Militants had issued threats to anyone participating in these polls, resulting in absence of any campaigning by the candidates. They had also killed two NC workers, In several wards, especially those in south Kashmir, no candidate filed nomination papers for the polls.
For ensuring security of candidates, they were moved to safe locations and their details were not made public.
The election authorities also kept the identities of the contesting candidates from the valley secret due to security reasons, prompting the people to term these polls as 'secret elections'.