The election commission of India Monday issued the notification for elections in two LokSabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir which are going to polls in the first phase on April 11. These include Jammu-Poonch and Baramulla parliamentary seats.
Jammu district election officer Ramesh Kumar—also returning officer for Jammu-Poonch seat—said the intending contestants can file their nominations on any working day until March 25, the last date for filing of nominations.
“March 21 and March 24 are holidays on account of Holi and Sunday. The candidates can file nomination papers during all the working days till March 25,” he said.
Due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct, only three vehicles can enter the premises of the office of returning officer and each candidate shall be accompanied by not more than five people, the DEO said.
The scrutiny of papers will be held on March 26 while the last date of withdrawal of candidature(s) is March 28, up to 3pm.
Similarly, the notification was issued for Baramulla parliamentary constituency by the concerned returning officer.
As per the notification, the polling for the two seats will be held on April 11, 2019, from 7am to 6pm.
Meanwhile, the notification for the Srinagar and Udhampur parliamentary seats will be issued on Tuesday (March 19).
As per the ECI schedule, the last date for filling of nomination for Srinagar and Udhampur will be March 26, while the scrutiny of nominations would held on March 27.
The contestants from both the constituencies can withdraw their candidatures till March 29. The polling would be held on April 18.
The Jammu-Poonch constituency has 1983136 voters, including 1030797 male and 952339 female.
In the last general election, BJP’s JugalKishor emerged victorious from this seat, with a margin of more than three lakh votes.
In Kathua-Udhampur-Doda seat, the total voters are 1647403, including 868183 male and 779220 female.
DrJitendra Singh of the BJP won the seat in the last general election with a handsome margin by defeating Congress stalwart and former chief minister GhulamNabi Azad.
The Baramulla seat has a total of 1301613 voters, including 670624 male and 629999 female. The seat is presently represented by PDP patron and its founder member MuzaffarHussainBaig.
The Srinagar parliamentary constituency has a total of 1291315 voters, including 665285 male and 625033 female. It is represented by National Conference president Farooq Abdullah since 2017.
Earlier, Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra won from Srinagar in 2014 as the PDP candidate. However, miffed over the PDP’s alliance with the BJP and civilian killings by forces during the 2016 uprising, Karra resigned from the party as well as the LokSabha and later joined Congress.