Polling picked up in Anantnag, over 16% recorded till 11 am

Polling started picking up in most parts of the south Kashmir's Anantnag parliamentary constituency, but remained affected in Pulwama district which recorded a low voter turn-out of 2.71% in the first four hours of polling today.

Anantnag district recorded 16.46% of polling till 11 am, while Kulgam recorded 14.12%, an official spokesman said.

He said Pulwama recorded 2.71%, while 8.66% of votes were polled in Shopian district.

Polling had to be briefly stopped at a polling station in Koil in Pulwama this morning after some people pelted stones on the booth, prompting police to fire warning shots. No one was injured in the clashes and the polling at the station was resumed a short while later, officials said.

Although 12 candidates are in the fray for this Lok Sabha seat spread over 16 Assembly segments in the four districts, the contest is expected to be a direct fight between ruling National Conference candidate Mehboob Beg and opposition PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.

Of the 16 Assembly segments, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLAs represent 12, the Congress two and the National Conference (NC) and the CPI-M one each.