The Anantnag district will go to polls in the first phase of the three-phased polling schedule for the southern Anantnag parliamentary constituency on April 23.
The voting in the district, spread over six assemblysegments comprising Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam,will take place from 7am to 4pm in the third phase of the general elections inthe state.
An official spokesman said in a statement that the district has 529256 electors, including 269603 male, 257540 female, 2102 service-electors (2091 male and 11 female) and 11 transgender voters. For smooth polling, the Election Commission of India has set up 714 polling stations in the district, the spokesman said.
At least 18 candidates are in the poll fray, including HasnainMasoodi of National Conference; SofiYousuf of BharatiyaJanata Party; Ghulam Ahmad Mir of Congress; Mehbooba Mufti of Peoples Democratic Party; Nisar Ahmad Wani of National Panthers Party; ChoudharyZaffar Ali of Peoples Conference; Sanjay Kumar Dhar of ManavAdhikar Party; Surinder Singh of PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia) and independants including Imtiyaz Ahmad Rather, RidwanaSanam, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, ZubairMasoodi, Shams Khwaja, Ali Muhammad Wani, Ghulam Muhammad Wani, Kyasir Ahmed Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan and MirzaSajadHussainBeigh.
The Kokernag assembly segment has the highest number of93874 voters (48742 male, 44948 female and 180 service voters), while Dooru hasthe lowest number of 79029 electors, including 40764 male, 37889 female and 374service voters.
The Bijbehara assembly segment has 93516 voters (47067 male,46222 female and 227 service voter), Shangus 89405 voters (45360 male, 43010female and 1031 service voters), Pahalgam 86735 (44115 male, 42498 female and121 service voter) and Anantnag 86699 (43555 male, 42973 female and 169 servicevoter). The Bijbehara segment has highest number of 46225 female voters, whereasShangus has a total of 1031 service electors—highest in the district, thespokesman said.