Voting began in Kashmir's Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, the first major polls to be held since the abrogation of Article 370, on Monday. The constituency, with 24 candidates in the fray, saw people lining up outside polling stations to exercise their franchise in some areas of the constituency.
The article was revoked in 2019, leading to the bifurcation of the state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The Srinagar seat will see a two-pronged fight with the National Conference (NC) candidate Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, an influential Shia leader and former minister, taking on PDP's Waheed Para. Para is the party's youth wing president. The Apni Party has fielded Mohammad Ashraf Mir and the DPAP has fielded Amir Ahmad Bhat. There are 20 others, including two women, in the fray.
The seat has been considered the stronghold of NC for decades and the party has been winning 10 out of 13 elections held for the seat so far. The other parties to win the seat include Congress's Ghulam Mohammad Mir Magami (1996) and PDP's Tariq Hameed Karra (2014).
The BJP had decided to stay away from the constituency with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the lotus bloom in Kashmir can wait and the party was more interested in winning the hearts. The NC ridiculed his statement, saying the party decided against contesting because it knew it would receive intense hate.
There are 17.48 lakh voters in the constituency that comprises Srinagar, Ganderbal and Pulwama districts and parts of Budgam and Shopian districts. Authorities have set up 2,135 polling stations across the five districts.
Special polling stations have been established for migrant voters of the Kashmir Division of the Union Territory -- 21 in Jammu, four in Delhi and one in Udhampur district. Voting is scheduled to end at 6 pm.
The election is widely anticipated considering how the constituency was redrawn following the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir in 2022. The seat also covers regions which witnessed low polling percentages due to boycott calls given by the separatists. Last elections, the voting percentage was just 14.4. However, this could improve as there were no boycott calls this time.