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Amid heightened security alert, Jammu and Kashmir goes to the fourth and final phase of polling on Tuesday to the state assembly covering six constituencies in the militant-dominated Doda district.
Voting will also been held in Lolab constituency, where polling originally scheduled in the first round on September 16 was countermanded following the assassination of the state Law Minister and the National Conference nominee, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, on September 11.
The Congress party on Sunday had announced the withdrawal of its candidate in favour of an independent, Abdul Haq Khan, in Lolab.
An estimated 485,000 voters are expected to choose their representatives from 67 candidates, including Minister of State for Home Khalid Najib Sohrawardy, state chiefs of the BJP and the BSP, Daya Kishan Kotwal and Sheikh Rehman respectively, PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad's kin Mohammed Sharief Naiz and former advocate general Mohammad Aslam Goni.
Security has been beefed up and paramilitary forces and army patrolling stepped up to thwart militants' plans to disrupt polling in the district.
Apprehending terrorist violence to disrupt polling in Banihal, Inderwal, Doda, Baderwah, Ramban, Kishtwar [all in Doda] and Lolab in Kashmir valley, security forces have launched area-domination and sanitisation operations to ensure peaceful balloting.
Nearly 18,000 additional paratroopers have been deployed in the six constituencies of Doda to ensure free polling, official sources said.
The paratroopers are drawn from the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Jammu and Kashmir armed police.
Security forces have also been deployed at Pirpanjal ranges touching Anantnag district in Kashmir to prevent militants from sneaking into Doda, the sources said.
All the 534 polling booths in the constituencies have been categorized as hypersensitive or sensitive.
Repolling would also be held in four polling stations in Pahalgam in Anantnag district and one in Kathua in Jammu following complaints of malpractices during the third phase of polls on October one.
In the run up to the polling in the constituencies of the district, militants launched a series of attacks, including one on People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti.
Of the 66 candidates, the maximum of 13 are in fray in Baderwah, while 10 are testing their fortunes in Doda, nine each in Inderwal, Kishtwar and Banihal and six from Ramban constituency. Ten candidates are contesting in Lolab.
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