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Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand broke records as they voted for the fifth and final leg of assembly polls on Saturday. Standing at 65 per cent J&K saw the highest voter turnout in over two decades, while Jharkhand saw a record 66 per cent voting.
Jammu and Kashmir registered its highest turn-out in assembly elections in the last 25 years with an estimated 65 per cent of voters casting their votes, as the fifth and final phase of polling ended on Saturday.
Rural areas witnessed more voter turnout than the urban areas of the city.
At many places, voters queued up at polling stations much before the start of the voting time at 8 am.
Despite cold weather, serpentine queues of people were seen outside the polling booths.
Terming the overall polling percentage in J and K as "historic and unprecedented", Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi said the fifth and final phase of polling in the assembly elections on Saturday saw 76 per cent of polling.
"It has been the highest turn-out in the last 25 years. This has been a historic turn-out in the current elections... unprecedented and totally peaceful," he said about J&K elections.
The previous assembly elections of 2008 and 2002 had witnessed 61.42 per cent and 43.09 per cent respectively in J&K.
The militancy-hit state has seen a quadrangular fight with the ruling National Conference, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress locked in the battle.
Describing the year 2014 as an eventful year for EC, he said "never in the history of elections has a year recorded such a voter turn-out", referring to a string of state Assembly elections and Lok Sabha polls held this year.
Giving details, elections officials said while Marh constituency in Jammu district witnessed the highest 65.44 per cent of voters casting their ballot, Gandhinagar segment in heart of Jammu city registered lowest 41.42 per cent voting.
R S Pura border constituency saw 61.74 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise, Nagorta 56 per cent while Raipur Domana saw over 59.20 per cent voters casting their ballot, Chhamb with 56 per cent and Suchetgarh polled 57 per cent polling.
Similarly, Bani registered 61.35 per cent, Hiranagar registered 55.56 per cent voting, Bishnah 54 per cent, Jammu East 46 per cent, Kathua 55.83 per cent, Basholi 52.60 per cent, Billawar 58.54 and Jammu West polled 56 per cent votes.
Besides these, Noushera polled 55.09 per cent votes followed by 60.84 per cent polling in Darhal and 50.52 per cent in Kalakote, Rajouri 54 and Akhnoor polled 62 per cent votes.
After a record turnout of voters in the previous four phases, particularly in Kashmir Valley, there is an expectation of high voter turnout in the seats spread across Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts of Jammu region.
As many as 213 candidates, including the Deputy Chief Minister, ministers Sham Lal Sharma, Raman Bhalla, Manohar Lal Sharma, Ajay Sadhotra, former MP and Ministers Lal Singh and Talib Hussain (both Bharatiya Janata Party) are in the fray.
As many as 18,28,904 eligible voters, comprising 9,59,011 men and 8,69,891 women, were eligible to exercise their franchise at 2,366 polling stations set up across the three border districts.
BJP has high stakes in this phase as it had got 10 seats n 2008 Assembly elections followed by Congress with 5 seats, C 2, PDP 1 and two seats going to Independents.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu Shant Manu said 400 security companies (40,000 security men) have been deployed.
Security arrangements along the Indo-Pak border have been strengthened in the three border districts of Jammu region with troops put on alert for the polls.
"Security grid along the Indo-Pak border has been put on alert. Multi-tier security has been put in place", the divisional commissioner said.
Deputy Chief Minister and Congress candidate Tara Chand, who won the Chhamb seat in Jammu in 1996, 2002 and 2008, is fighting to retain the seat this time again.
Besides, Congress candidate from Akhnoor and Minister Sham Lal Sharma is looking at scoring a hat-trick.
Another Congress Minister Raman Bhalla is also looking at repeating his victory of 2002 and 2008 in Gandhi Nagar seat.
Congress Minister Manohar Lal Sharma is engaged in a direct fight with BJP at Billawar in Kathua district.While PDP has fielded six sitting MLAs including Wani, it has nominated fresh faces in the three constituencies.
Sitting minister of National Conference Ajay Sadhotra will take on BJP in Marh Assembly segment.
Besides, two-time MP and former minister Lal Singh, who switched sides from Congress to BJP, contested from Basholi seat. Similarly, former NC MP Talib Hussain tried his luck on a BJP ticket from Rajouri segment.
NC candidate for Nagrota Devender Singh Rana, who is close to Omar Abdullah, faced his maiden contest.
Jharkhand, which also went to the polls along with J&K, broke all previous polling records to witness over 66 per cent of turn-out in the five phases, bettering the previous mark of 54.2 per cent in the 2004 assembly poll.
Vinod Zutshi said the fifth and final phase of polling in the assembly elections on Saturday saw 76 per cent of polling.
Similarly, the last phase recorded over 71 per cent of polling in Jharkhand, he said.
Chief Electoral Officer P K Jajoria lauded the police personnel and election staff for successfully carrying out the elections in all the five phases.
He said free, fair and peaceful conduct of elections is a matter of pride for Jharkhand.
Jajoria also commended the voters for turning out in large numbers, saying that they have become aware of the value of vote and its impact on development.
Dumka Deputy Commissioner Harsh Mangla said the polling in all the constituencies under the district concluded peacefully.
A total of 36,90,069 electorate, including 17,84,486 women, were eligible to choose from 208 candidates, including 16 women nominees, for the 16 seats spread over 6 districts of Dumka, Godda, Sahebganj, Jamtara, Deoghar and Pakud in Santhal Pargana region.
The polling began at 7 am and ended at 3 pm.
Prominent among those in the fray for fifth phase polls are Chief Minister Hemant Soren from Dumka and Barhait, Assembly Speaker Shashank Sekhar Bhokta from Sarath and Rural Works Minister Lobin Hembrom from Borio.
Prominent Jharkhand politician and former Jharkhand Vikas Dal MP Suraj Mandal is challenging the speaker at Sarath.
The incumbent Jharkhan Mukti Morcha had won nine of the 16 seats in the 2009 assembly polls.
The EC said it had marked as many as 833 polling stations as hyper-sensitive and 1,496 sensitive and 291 polling stations were made available with web casting facilities.
A total of 22,240 polling personnel were deployed for the polling.
The previous four phase polling were held on November 25 (63.26 per cent voter turnout), December 2 (68.01 per cent), December 9 (63.96 per cent) and December 14 (64.63 per cent) with updated polling percentage, according to the EC.
A senior security official reportedly said that security deployment in Jharkhand was three to four times more than it was in the Lok Sabha elections.
Counting is slated for December 23.