Counting begins for J-K municipal polls

The counting of votes for the 52 civic bodies that recently went to polls in Jammu and Kashmir commenced on Saturday.

The counting started at 8 a.m. and all the results would be declared later in the day.

For the Srinagar municipal corporation, the counting is being held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here and for the Jammu municipal corporation, it is being held at the Polytechnic Institute near Bikram Chowk.

For other districts of the state, counting is being held at their respective district headquarters.

The polls were held in four phases amid tight security arrangements, covering 79 municipal bodies. A total of 3372 nominations were filed for 1145 wards.

Out of total civic bodies, 27 in the Valley did not go to polls owing either to the fact that there was no candidate or only one candidate had filed nominations for a particular ward.

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the two major sides battling for municipal authority in Jammu and Kashmir as the state's two major parties - the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Alliance (PDP) - have boycotted the elections over lack of clarity in the Centre's stance on Articles 35A.