Srinagar,April 23: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday appealed to the residents of south Kashmir not to reward the “death, destruction and deceit” of last four years by boycotting the polls.
“To the voters of Anantnag, please don’t reward the death, destruction & deceit of the last 4 years by staying home & boycotting the election. Come out & vote to give your anger a voice. Vote for the best candidate in the field, vote for @masoodi_hasnain,” Omar said in a tweet.
The election commission officials said that only 1.55 percent votes have been polled till 9 am in Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
Polling began at 7 a.m. and will end at 4 pm for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
There are around 714 polling stations set up for 5,23,566 voters in six polling segments of Bijbehara, Pahalgam, Shangus, Anantnag, Kokernag and Dooru.
Mehbooba Mufti, the Peoples Democratic Party President, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, state President of the Congress, Justice (Retired) Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference, Sofi Yusuf of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Chowdhury Zafar Ali of the People’s Conference are in the fray in this constituency.
Heavy deployment of THE Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and state police has been made to secure the polling stations and provide safety to the voters.