Municipal Council Anantnag, the second largest urban local body in the Valley after Srinagar Municipal Corporation, which has 47 candidates in fray, recorded a mere 1 per cent voting in 16 of its wards where polling was held on Wednesday.
In the nearby Municipal Committee Bijbehara, which was also scheduled to go for polls, no election was held in any of the 17 designated wards. The six candidates in fray were elected unopposed.
Most of the votes were polled in the morning as polling started at 6am. As the day progressed, barely anyone turned up at polling stations.
Only policemen, paramilitary forces and army, who were was deployed in large numbers, could be seen on deserted streets of Anantnag town.
“Of the 25 designated wards in MC Anantnag, 16 went for polls and in the rest the candidates were elected unopposed,” an official said. He said that in these 16 wards, out of the total 32,908 votes, 368 were polled.
Sixty-one was the highest number of votes polled in Ward No 2 Khanabal-A-Batpora out of total 1211. Only 1 vote was polled in Ward No 16 of Sarnal Payeen, an official said.
A total of 47 candidates had filed nominations from Anantnag MC. Nine have been elected unopposed.
“Those elected unopposed are either affiliated with Congress or contested independently,” said an official adding that one BJP candidate has also been elected unopposed.
In the 16 wards, which went for polls, 37 candidates are in the contest, while in several wards, migrant Kashmiri Pandit votes hold the key.