Amir Tantray
Srinagar, Sep 30: Stage is set for the final phase of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir with 40 Assembly seats having over 39 lakh eligible electorates going for the polls tomorrow. There are 415 candidates in the fray for the final phase.
This phase, is the biggest phase with 40 constituencies of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts ready to choose their representatives.
According to the latest electoral rolls, 39,18,220 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in this phase, comprising 20,09,033 male voters, 19,09,130 female voters and 57 third-gender voters. Over 1.94 lakh youth voters aged between 18 to 19 are eligible to vote in the 3rd phase of Assembly Election.
This phase will also see participation from 35,860 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and 32,953 voters above the age of 85. Election Commission of India (ECI) has established 5,060 polling stations with 100% webcasting across 40 Assembly Constituencies. These include 974 Urban Polling Stations and 4,086 Rural Polling Stations.
To enhance voter participation, 240 special polling stations have been established across 7 districts in this phase, including 50 polling stations managed by women, known as Pink polling stations, 43 polling stations manned by specially abled persons and 40 polling stations manned by youth. Also, there will be 45 green polling stations in order to spread messages about environmental concern, 29 polling stations are established near the LOC/ IB for residents residing there and 33 Unique Polling stations.
A total of 24 special Polling Stations have been established for Migrant Voters of Kashmir Division, which includes 19 Special Polling Stations in Jammu, 4 in Delhi and 1 in Udhampur District. Special Polling Station-wise extract voter list will be with BLOs.
A team of four officials, including Presiding Officer will be stationed in every polling station. In total, more than 20,000 Polling staff will be deployed on duty for the 3rd phase of the assembly election.
In this phase, 109 candidates are in fray in Jammu district, followed by 101 in Baramulla district, 59 in Kupwara district, 42 in Bandipora district, 37 in Udhampur district, 35 in Kathua district, while 32 candidates are contesting in Samba district.
Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which is ruling at the centre, is having high hopes of winning the maximum seats from four districts of Jammu region for the polls in the phase so that they can be in a position to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir on its own.
They have put all the might during campaigning and most of the star campaigners of the party including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, union ministers, party leaders from outside and all the party functionaries of J&K were involved in the campaigning.
The saffron party is on a mission to sweep this phase and install a Dogra Hindu CM from Jammu but this is not going to be easy as opposition parties have also put their weight behind their candidates and apart from a couple of constituencies, where the BJP seems to be having an upper hand, contest on over 20 seats is tough and can swing to any side.
These 24 seats are crucial for the BJP to win and sources in the party said that the high command is in no mood to allow any laxity to give away any of the seats which could hurt their prospects of government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Before the campaigning BJP leaders from different states of the country were assigned the task of different constituencies and also observers were also put in place to help these leaders. Though during the first two phases, focus remained all over but after September 25, everybody was focused on 24 seats of Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts and all out efforts have been put to win maximum seats,” the source said.
They believe that this phase is going to be a make or break for the party and some are of the opinion that this is the golden chance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get a Hindu CM from Jammu and if it couldn’t happen this time, it may not happen for the next 100 years.
The Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance partners, on the other hand, are confident of winning more seats as compared to the 2014 results. They raised issues concerning the general public including unemployment, price rise, Agniveer, poor condition of traders and much more to get votes and played down and regional or communal divide.
