Eight counting centres in J&K, one for Kashmiri migrants in Delhi

Srinagar : Election Commission authorities have set up nine centres for the five Lok Sabha constituencies where counting of votes will take place on Tuesday.

One counting centre has been set up additionally in Delhi for counting votes polled by migrant voters of three Lok Sabha constituencies of Kashmir.

The fate of 100 candidates will be decided on Tuesday in J&K among whom prominent faces are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader and Minister of State (PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh, former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

Jitendra Singh is the BJP candidate for the Kathua-Udhampur Lok Sabha seat while Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are fighting elections from the Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri constituencies respectively.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh is challenged by Chowdhary Lal Singh of the Congress; Omar Abdullah by Sajad Gani Lone of the People’s Conference (PC) and Engineer Rashid of Awami Ithad Party (AIP), Mehbooba Mufti is challenged by Mian Altaf Ahmad of the National Conference (NC) as the main contestant.

The deployment of staff for all the 10 counting centres has been made by the authorities.

During this Lok Sabha election, over 58 per cent voter turnout was recorded in J&K. This is the highest for the last 35 years.

Kashmir recorded an overall voter turnout of around 51 per cent for the three constituencies of Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri. This is the highest voter turnout in the Valley since 1984.

Counting for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat will take place at the Sher-e-Kashmir convention centre in Srinagar. There are 24 candidates in the fray in this constituency.

Counting for the Baramulla seat will take place at the government boys' degree college in Baramulla town. There are 21 candidates in the fray in this constituency.

For the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, which is spread over both the regions of the UT, including Anantnag and Kulgam districts of Kashmir, and Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu division, counting will be held at boys degree college in Anantnag town and government post-graduate college in Rajouri town.

Counting for the Kathua-Udhampur seat will be held at a government degree college in Kathua town. There are 11 candidates in the fray in this constituency.

Counting for the Jammu Lok Sabha seat, where 21 candidates are in the fray, will be held at Maulana Azad Memorial College and government polytechnic college in Jammu city.

Migrant votes would be counted at the government women's college Gandhi Nagar in Jammu, the government girls' higher secondary school in Udhampur town and J&K House in New Delhi.

CCTV cameras and videography arrangements have been made at all counting centres in the UT and in New Delhi.