Over two lakh youth may hold the key for Udhampur seat with the first-time voters more in number than the winning margin in the parliamentary constituency in 2014.
In absence of any prominent native candidate from Chenabvalley, the tilt of around six lakh voters of the region will also be adeciding factor in the polls, scheduled between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm onThursday.
The Udhampur parliamentary seat has 16, 85,779 electors ofwhich 1,665,467 are registered as general voters and 20,312 as service voters.
Among the general voters, 876,319 are males and 789,105females.
The service voters include 20,052 males and 260 females, and43 transgender electors.
The whopping 216507 first-time voters added to finalelectoral roll of eligible voters are three times the winning margin of nearly70,000 votes in the constituency the last time.
These voters, millennials born between 1997 and 2001 werenot eligible to vote during the last general elections held in 2014.
During the last Lok Sabha elections, 10,41,758 out of14,69,072 actually voted.
Dr. Jitendra Singh of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) emergedvictorious with margin of 60,976 votes against Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress.
Singh secured 487,369 votes while Azad managed to bag426,393. He is seeking the second term again.
The constituency is spread over 17 Assembly segmentscomprising six districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathuawhere three districts of Chenab region (Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar) comprisingsix assemble segments and around 586,738 voters is also a key factor.
Among the one dozen candidates in the fray are VikramadityaSingh, grandson of the last Dogra king Maharaja Hari Singh and former ministersChoudhary Lal Singh and Harsh Dev Singh.
The Hindus are in majority in most segments of Kathua andUdhampur districts but the Muslims in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts and afew parts of Reasi play a significant role in the constituency.
The four main candidates are Rajputs, making it likely forthe Hindu votes to get divided among them. Interestingly no major face fromChenab region is contesting the elections, so the votes from region could be amajor swing factor.
2,710 polling stations have been set up in the vastly spreadconstituency that polls on a single day.
Among all the Assembly segments in the Udhampurconstituency, both the highest and the lowest number of electors is registeredin Kathua district, , 129,578 in Kathua segment and 47,992 in Bani.