Mammoth elections conclude across J&K with 69% turnout in third phase

Intense campaigning, peaceful polling and high voter turnout marked Jammu & Kashmir’s first assembly elections in a decade, which concluded on Tuesday with people turning up in unprecedented numbers to exercise their franchise in the final and largest phase of the polls.

Intense campaigning, peaceful polling and high voter turnout marked Jammu & Kashmir’s first assembly elections in a decade, which concluded on Tuesday with people turning up in unprecedented numbers to exercise their franchise in the final and largest phase of the polls.

Mammoth elections conclude across J&K with 69% turnout in third phase

According to Election Commission (EC) data, the 40 seats in the third phase – 24 in Jammu and 16 in Kashmir – recorded a turnout of 69.21% at 11.30pm. This number will likely be revised upwards.

“The echoes of this election will be heard and it will serve as a reference point for times to come. To have this kind of turnout without any violence or a repoll, with participation at every layer of election, is historical,” chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said.

The last phase’s turnout carried forward the momentum recorded during this summer’s Lok Sabha polls, when a turnout of 58.46% was recorded, the highest in 35 years. The first phase recorded an impressive turnout of 61.38%. In the second phase, 57.31% of the voters turned up to choose their representatives.

J&K recorded its highest overall turnout of 75% in 1987. The votes will be counted on October 8

To be sure, a seat-by-seat comparison is not possible with the previous assembly or Lok Sabha polls as the boundaries of the constituencies were changed in a delimitation exercise in 2022.

These are the first assembly polls in the restive region since its special status and statehood were scrapped five years ago, and are likely to be the last step before the Union territory’s statehood is restored. The restoration of J&K’s statehood was a key poll plank, with political leaders from across the party lines promising to bring it back if voted to power.

“We didn’t vote for 35 years. Now we are voting with the hope that we will get back all the things snatched from us in the last five years. Militancy ruined us, now we hope our votes can bring a change,” said Mohammad Yusuf Najar, a voter in Baramulla constituency.

The highest turnout was recorded from Marh (SC), which reported 81.47%. The lowest was recorded from Sopore with 45.32% turnout till 11.30 pm.

“Today is the third and last round of voting in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections. I request all voters to come forward and cast their votes to make the festival of democracy a success. I am confident that apart from the young friends who are going to vote for the first time, women power will also participate in the voting in large numbers,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X in the morning, shortly after voting began.

A total of 873 candidates were in the fray for the UT’s 90 seats, with 415 of them contesting in Tuesday’s last phase. The electoral contest largely was limited between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Congress-National Conference combine, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A last-minute alliance between Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and politico-religious outfit Jamaat-e-Islami – their candidates are contesting as independents – and a host of local parties such as the People’s Conference, the Apni Party, and the Democratic Progressive Azad Party were likely to make inroads and skew the electoral arithmetic.

In the third phase, Peoples Conference chief Sajjad Gani Lone, former deputy CM and Congress leader Tara Chand, PDP leader and former deputy CM Muzaffar Baig, and 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s brother Ajaz Ahmad Guru were among the key candidates across seven districts.

Lone said his party is “equidistant” from all other parties and they are contesting on their own as they had faced issues in alliances last time as well. “We do not go into the number game. But I think it will be good… We are equidistant from all parties, we faced issues in alliances last time as well. So, we are on our own. We want to contest alone,” he said.

Issues of statehood, the impact of Article 370’s abrogation, a spike in terror strikes, and development worries were among the rallying points in the high-stakes polls. Political bigwigs, including Modi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, former CM and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah, and PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti, promised to speed up the region’s development, which they said was ignored by their political rivals.

The elections took place against the backdrop of a string of terror attacks in Jammu, prompting authorities to step up deployment. This year, 15 security personnel and 11 civilians have died in separate attacks in Jammu. Security forces have gunned down 11 terrorists in the region. In Kashmir, five personnel and seven civilians have died in terror strikes, with forces killing 27 terrorists in the same period. Kupwara, Baramulla, Kathua, and Jammu – four of the districts that went to polls on Tuesday – have borne the brunt of these strikes.

The security situation was one of the key campaign points in the elections, with the BJP crediting itself for reining in terrorism and the Opposition blaming it for the surge in attacks.

“I voted with the hope that the government will take care of farmers and our youngsters in the border area. I also hope that the new government initiates a decisive action and saves our children from the menace of drugs,” said 83-year-old Swarn Singh, who voted in the RS Pura sector of Jammu district.

These are also the first assembly polls in J&K since a controversial delimitation exercise earmarked 47 assembly seats for Kashmir and 43 for Jammu in its final order in 2022.

The delimitation panel gave Jammu six additional seats and Kashmir one, sparking allegations from the Opposition that the balance was tilting in favour of Hindu-majority Jammu. It also reserved nine seats for Scheduled Tribes, renamed some assembly constituencies, and redrew some others.

In 2014, the PDP emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats and formed an alliance of ideological extremes with the BJP, which had 25 seats. However, the coalition collapsed early in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support, and Governor’s Rule was imposed in June that year under controversial circumstances. On August 5, 2019, the Union government revoked Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the erstwhile state.