Polling in Anantnag district tomorrow, 18 candidates in fray

The Anantnag district will go to polls in the first phase of the three-phased polling schedule for the southern Anantnag parliamentary constituency on April 23.

The voting in the district, spread over six assembly segments comprising Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam, will take place from 7am to 4pm in the third phase of the general elections in the state.

An official spokesman said in a statement that the district has 529256 electors, including 269603 male, 257540 female, 2102 service-electors (2091 male and 11 female) and 11 transgender voters. For smooth polling, the Election Commission of India has set up 714 polling stations in the district, the spokesman said.

At least 18 candidates are in the poll fray, including Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference; Sofi Yousuf of Bharatiya Janata Party; Ghulam Ahmad Mir of Congress; Mehbooba Mufti of Peoples Democratic Party; Nisar Ahmad Wani of National Panthers Party; Choudhary Zaffar Ali of Peoples Conference; Sanjay Kumar Dhar of ManavAdhikar Party; Surinder Singh of PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia) and independants including Imtiyaz Ahmad Rather, Ridwana Sanam, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, ZubairMasoodi, Shams Khwaja, Ali Muhammad Wani, Ghulam Muhammad Wani, Kyasir Ahmed Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan and Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh.

The Kokernag assembly segment has the highest number of 93874 voters (48742 male, 44948 female and 180 service voters), while Dooru has the lowest number of 79029 electors, including 40764 male, 37889 female and 374 service voters.