Anantnag, May 25 : During the first two hours of the voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat in J&K on Saturday, an 8.89 per cent voter turnout was witnessed.

EC statistics said that among the 18 voting segments of this constituency, Nowshera had polled the highest so far at 12.52 per cent voter turnout followed by Thana Mandi (ST) segment at 11.32 per cent.

Anantnag segment polled 6 per cent, Anantnag West 6.79 per cent, Budhal (ST) 10.81 per cent, DH Pora 9, Devsar 8.11, Dooru 8.40, Kokernag (ST) 10.31, Kulgam 5.31, Mendhar 11.10, Nowshera 12.52, Pahalgam 10.98, Poonch Haveli 11.98, Rajouri (ST) 9, Shangus-Anantnag East 7.03, Srigufawara-Bijbehara 6.04, Surankot (ST) 7.30, Thana Mandi (ST) -11.32 and Zainapora 8.35 per cent.

Enthusiastic voters came out early Saturday morning to exercise their democratic rights in the constituency. Voter queues continued to swell as the day progressed.

EC authorities said a large voter turnout is expected in the constituency.

After fresh delimitation of electoral constituencies, two districts of Jammu division, Poonch and Rajouri were added to Valley's Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency while Pulwama district was deleted from this constituency and was made a part of the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, just a 9 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Anantnag while Rajouri and Poonch polled 7.2 per cent votes. These statistics cannot be taken as the baseline to determine Saturday's voter turnout in this constituency after delimitation.

This election was the first large democratic exercise in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency after August 5, 2019, when Articles 370 and 35A were abrogated and J&K was downgraded to the status of a UT.

South Kashmir districts of Anantnag, Kulgam and parts of Shopian which form this constituency, have been the worst militancy-affected districts in the Valley.

The security forces backed up by a determined Lt. Governor-headed administration have brought down militancy to its lowest ebb in these areas during the last four years. Although Rajouri and Poonch districts continue to witness terrorist attacks, the level of terrorism even in those districts is nowhere near what it used to be till 2019.

These positive developments are expected to encourage voters to participate in large numbers in the electoral process.

Extensive security arrangements with the deployment of large numbers of CAPFs and the local police have been made in the constituency to provide a safe, free and fearless environment to the voters.

EC has set up 2,338 polling stations for 18,36,576 voters, including 9,33,647 male, 9,02,902 female, and 27 third-gender voters. The voter list also includes 17,967 persons with disabilities and 540 individuals over the age of 100. There are 25,000 migrant voters in the constituency for whom special polling stations have been set up in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi.

For uninterrupted communication with polling staff at remote booths, satellite phones and wireless sets have been provided. 19 polling stations are located along the Line of Control, (LoC) where additional security deployment has been made.

There are 20 candidates in the fray in this constituency. The main contest is, however, between Mian Altaf Ahmad, senior Gujjar/Baksrwal leader of the National Conference (NC), Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister and president of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Zafar Iqbal Manhas of J&K Apni Party. BJP has unofficially supported the Apni Party candidate and has not fielded any candidate in this constituency.

Pahari community living in Poonch and Rajouri districts form a significant number of voters in the constituency. This community was given ST status by the Government of India recently. In addition to the Pahari community, Gujjar/Bakarwal community also form a significant part of the constituency's electorate. Mian Altaf Ahmad of the NC has a predominant influence among the Gujjar/Bakarwal community which cuts across party lines since the Mian is considered to be the religious leader of this community. Voting started at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.

/IANS