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Onkar Singh in Jammu
All the thirteen assembly constituencies in Jammu division, which went to the polls on Tuesday, registered a 58 per cent voter turnout.
Deputy Election Commissioner Rohit Kansal, who is in charge of polling in Jammu, told rediff.com that he was happy at the voter turnout.
He said the polling was conducted in a 'free and fair manner'.
The polling was heavy in the border areas with Chhamb district registering the highest 70 per cent polling. Marh with 68 per cent came in second.
Samba, Vijaypur, Ranbir Singh Pura, Suchetgarh, Akhnoor also registered more than 60 per cent polling.
The city voters, however, remained indifferent.
Nagrota from where Ajay Sadotra, a minister in Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference government, is pitted against his Congress rival Balwan Singh, registered 54 per cent polling, while Jammu East and Jammu West registered 45 and 44 per cent respectively.
In Samba and Vijaypur the polling officers complained about the lack of facilities. "There is no electricity in the rooms where we are conducting polls. We had to light candles in the night to complete our polling arrangements before opening the booth at seven in the morning," a polling officer told rediff.com.
At another place the voters complained about defective electoral polling lists. "I have this card issued by the Election Commission of India and yet my name does not figure in the polling list," said Ravi Kumar, who had turned up early to cast his vote in the Samba constituency.
In Vijaypur assembly segment, BJP workers alleged that minister Surjit Singh Salathia's men were casting bogus votes in league with some of the polling staff.
At several places the Congress and the National Conference workers clashed with each other.
The security forces heaved a sigh of relief when the polling got over at 1600 hours without an incident. "We had received some intelligence reports about the possibility of terrorist violence during the polling. But everything has passed off peacefully. Now we can go back and relax a bit," a senior police official said.
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