Ladakh expects large voter turnout

The cold desert region of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir - which has remained unaffected by the over-two decade-long separatist violence in the state - is expecting a large voter turnout during Wednesday's polling for its Lok Sabha seat.

As many as 159,631 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 531 polling stations.

The turnout in 2009 was 71.84 percent, officials said.

A total of 252 polling personnel are being deployed in six hyper-sensitive, eight sensitive and 49 normal polling stations in Nubra assembly segment, while 844 polling staff have been deployed in 16 hyper-sensitive, 53 sensitive and 142 normal polling stations in Leh.

Four candidates - Thupstan Chhewang of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Tsering Samphel of the Congress and two independents, Ghulam Raza and Syed Mohammad Kazim - are in the fray.

Leh district has 39,812 male and 39,230 female voters, while Kargil has 41,182 male and 39,407 female voters.

In order to ensure maximum turnout, photo voter slips have been distributed at people's doorsteps in Ladakh.

Ladakh constitutes 70 percent of the total geographical area of the state, but has the lowest population density of around three per square km in the country.