RAJOURI: Jammu and Kashmir BJP President Ravinder Raina cast his vote on Saturday in Rajouri and said that the 2024 elections are being celebrated in the Union Territory like a festival. “The festival of Indian democracy, the Lok Sabha elections are taking place, and there is an atmosphere of enthusiasm in the entire Jammu and Kashmir. The excitement for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is going on like a festival in Jammu and Kashmir. In the Srinagar parliamentary seat, 40 per cent of voting took place, while in Baramulla in North Kashmir, 60 per cent of voting took place and today in Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat also there has been a long turnout since morning. This is the victory of our democracy…,” Raina said. “This area is close to LOC and here too people are coming out with full enthusiasm to vote,” he added. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will be facing a high-stake contest against National Conference (NC) candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad. Additionally, Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party is also contesting the polls, making the contest a triangular fight. Earlier, the Election Commission had revised the date of polling in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency from May 7 to May 25 after it received representations to reschedule the date of polling due to various issues about “logistics, communication and natural barriers of connectivity.” The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has however not announced any candidate from any of the three seats in Kashmir, including Anantnag-Rajouri. In 2019, NC’s Hasnain Masoodi defeated Mufti from the seat by a close margin of over 6000 votes. In the first general elections in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the voting has already concluded on the seats of Jammu, Baramulla, Srinagar and Udhampur. This is also the first election in Anantnag-Rajouri after the delimitation exercise in 2022, which saw the region of Poonch and Rajouri being combined into the constituency. In the fifth phase, the Baramulla parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir recorded a voter turnout of 55.79 per cent. As per the ECI, this is the highest voter turnout recorded in the constituency in the last 8 Lok Sabha elections in 35 years. Prior to this, the Srinagar constituency also recorded its highest voter turnout since 199 with over 38 per cent.
