A dismal voter turnout of 1.5 per cent was recorded till 12 noon in the third and final phase of polling in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency on Monday while nearly 30 per cent had voted in the Ladakh seat by noon.
Hardly any voters approached the polling stations inShopian, Wachi, Rajpora, Pulwama and Tral segments of Anantnag.
Militants hurled a grenade at the Rohmoo polling stationwhich exploded but without causing any damage.
A mysterious explosion also occurred outside a pollingstation in Tral. Police said they were investigating.
The maximum voting in Anantnag till noon was recorded inShopian (3.1 per cent), followed by Pampore (2.6), Wachi (1.4), Rajpora (0.9),Tral (0.5) and Pulwama (0.4 per cent).
Officials said the overall voter turnout in Ladakh andAnantnag constituencies till 12 noon was 8.4 per cent.
This was because of the brisk 29.5 per cent voting in Ladakhconstituency.
There are 522,530 voters in the districts of Shopian andPulwama who are eligible to vote on Monday as part of the Anantnag constituencywhile the total electorate is 174,618 in Ladakh, spread over the two districtsof Leh and Kargil.
Most polling stations in Shopian and Pulwama wore a desertedlook.
Separatists have called for an election boycott and ashutdown in Shopian and Pulwama districts.
Although polling began at the same time in both the LokSabha seats, it will end at 4 p.m. in Anantnag and 6 p.m. in Ladakh.
There are 18 candidates in the race in Anantnag but the maincontest is between Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), GhulamAhmad Mir of Congress and Justice (retired) Hasnain Masoodi of the NationalConference.
In the hilly Shahdab Karewa village of Shopian, voters cameout in good numbers.
In Ladakh, the contest is four-cornered involving JamyangTsering Namgyal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rigzin Spalbar of theCongress and two independents, Haji Asgar Ali Karbalai and Sajjad Hussain.