Counting of votes for 52 civic bodies to be held across Jammu and Kashmir today

Counting of votes for 52 civic bodies across Jammu and Kashmir began on Saturday, polling for which was held in four phases earlier this month. 

The counting of votes began at 9 am and will be done at the Government Polytechnic College in Jammu.

Although there are 79 civic bodies in the state, the counting to be done today will only be for 52 local bodies since elections were not held in 27 civic bodies as there was no candidate or only one candidate.  

A total of 3,372 nominations were filed for 1,145 wards. The fate of over 3,000 candidates will be decided by the end of the day.

The elections are a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress. A large number of independents are also in the running. The National Conference and the PDP did not participate in the polls.

The urban local bodies polls in Jammu and Kashmir took place after a gap of 13 years, with the last elections being conducted in 2005.

The polling was held amid tight security arrangements in four phases starting October 8 and ending on October 16. While moderate to heavy polling was witnessed in Jammu and Ladakh regions, the Kashmir valley saw an abysmally low voter turnout.

Nearly 17 lakh voters were eligible to vote for 79 urban local bodies of the state but polling was held only for 52. No voting was held in 27 civic bodies in the Valley either because there was no candidate or only one candidate had filed nominations for a particular ward.

Of the 598 wards in Kashmir, 231 candidates were elected unopposed, while there were no candidates on 181 wards.

The overall voting percentage for these polls in the state stood at 35.1 per cent.

(With inputs from PTI)