Fourth phase of Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir

mangaloretoday.com/PTI

Ranchi/Srinagar, Dec 14: Voting for 18 Assembly constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir and 15 seats in Jharkhand takes place in the fourth phase of Assembly elections in the states on Sunday.

In the penultimate round of the five-phased elections in J&K, the fate of 182 candidates including two chief ministerial aspirants and Speaker of the Assembly will be sealed on Sunday.

 

Over 14.73 lakh voters including 7.05 lakh females will exercise their franchise at 1,890 polling stations in four districts of the state Srinagar, Anantnag, Shopian (Kashmir Valley) and Samba (Jammu region).

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is contesting from Sonwar Assembly segment of Srinagar after he chose not to contest from his family stronghold of Ganderbal constituency. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron and party chief ministerial candidate Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is seeking re-election from Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir.

The 15 constituencies that go to polls in Jharkhand on Sunday are, Madhupur, Deogarh (SC), Bagodar, Jamua (SC), Gandey, Giridih, Dumri, Bokaro, Chandankyari (SC), Sindri, Nirsa, Dhanbad, Jharia, Tundi and Baghmara. Amongst these constituencies, several are affected by Maoist violence.

There are a total of 43,48,709 voters eligible to choose their candidates and the electorate boasts of as many as 2,23,626 voters in the 18/19 age group.

Three ministers - Mannan Mallick (Congress-Dhanbad), Suresh Paswan (RJD-Deogarh) and Haji Hussain Ansari (JMM-Madhupur)- are among 217 candidates, including 16 women, in the fray. As many as 11 MLAs are also seeking re-election.

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, whose fate has already been sealed at Dhanwar seat in the third phase polling, is locked in a battle with his former ’disciple’ Nirbhay Sahabadi of the BJP from Giridih seat.