Lok Sabha polls: Over 3 lakh voters to cast their votes for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir

Poll officials said the electoral gender ratio of women voters has increased from 945 in 2019 to 954 in 2024.

Jammu:

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said as many as 8.69 million voters, including 3.400,000 first-time voters, are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that 11,629 polling stations will be set up in the federal territories, with an average of 747 voters per polling station, of which 77,290 voters are above the age of 85 and 2,886 of them are above the age of 100.

Talking to reporters here at the end of his three-day trip to Jammu and Kashmir, he reviewed the preparations for polls and asked voters and political parties to actively participate in the “festival of democracy” and ensure peaceful, inducement-free elections for all contestants. “Level playing field”.

Mr Kumar said: “We have been visiting different parts of the country to review poll preparations and this is our last visit. We met leaders of various national and regional political parties, law enforcement agencies, chief secretaries and attorneys general, and held detailed discussions.”

He said the directives passed were to ensure peaceful and temptation-free elections and also to ensure maximum voter turnout.

The CEC said Jammu and Kashmir has 8.69 million registered voters, including 4.434 million men and 4.255 million women. The figure also includes 67,400 people with disabilities and 158 transgender people.

The electoral gender ratio of female voters increased from 945 in 2019 to 954 in 2024, he said, adding that there were 16 parliamentary constituencies with an electoral gender ratio of more than 1,000.

He said that while there are 1.56 lakh female voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years, the new number of female voters is 1.35 lakh.

Of the total 11,629 polling stations, 9,307 are in rural areas and 2,322 in urban areas, Rajiv Kumar said, adding that 52% of the polling stations (5,814) have webcasting facilities and 267 of them will be Model polling station. There will be 93 polling stations run entirely by women and 83 polling stations run by persons with disabilities.

The CEC said that as part of strict vigil at inter-state and international borders, a total of 47 inter-state checkpoints and 385 internal police checkpoints will be set up and manned round the clock. Instructions were also passed on to monitor unknown flights.

Talking about his meetings with political parties, he said they demanded a level playing field and no discrimination in providing security for campaigning.

Mr. Kumar said that the demands and concerns of various political parties have been taken note of and strict instructions have been issued to the officials concerned so that no such complaints are filed again.

He said officials were told to provide senior political leaders with adequate security based on their perception of the threat so that they could campaign freely in subsequent elections.

Officials have been warned that strict action will be taken if they fail to fulfill their duties and ensure a level playing field for all parties without any discrimination.

“There must be no violence, intimidation and threats against voters,” he said, directing immediate action against the culprits.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)