179 polling parties deployed in J-K's Doda

Around 179 polling parties have been deployed Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district for Doda and Bhaderwah Assembly segments under Udhampur parliamentary constituency which is going to polls in the second phase on Thursday, officials said.

The polling parties -- 73 for Doda and 106 for Bhaderwah -- left for the respective polling stations under the supervision of Doda District Election Officer Sagar Doifode, they said.

Earlier in the morning, the polling parties reported at the respective dispatch centres where Electronic Voting Machine along with Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and other election material were made available to them.

Later, accompanied by security personnel, the presiding officers and other team members, the polling staff left for their respective polling stations to undertake the voting process, to be held on April 18 from 7 am to 6 pm.

In Udhampur parliamentary constituency, 12 of those in the fray are Tilak Raj Bhagat of Bhujan Samaj Party, Jitendra Singh of Bhartiya Janata Party, Vikramaditya Singh of Indian National Congress, Harsh Dev Singh of JKNPP, Ch. Lal Singh of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party, Mohammad Ayub of Navrang Congress Party, Meenakshi of Shiv Sena and Bansi Lal, Rakesh Mudgal, Shaber Ahmad, Garib Singh and Firdous Ahmed all Independents.

The constituency is spread over 17 Assembly segments comprising six districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua.

The Udhampur Lok Sabha seat has 16, 85,779 electors of which 1,665,467 are registered as general voters and 20,312 as service voters.

Among the general voters, 876,319 are males and 789,105 females. The service voters include 20,052 males and 260 females, and 43 transgender electors. For the smooth conduct of election in the constituency, the Election Commission has established 2,710 polling stations.