Seventh Phase of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat polls underway

SRINAGAR: The voting for the seventh phase of Jammu and Kashmir panchayat polls is currently underway on Tuesday. Polling for this phase is being held at 2,714 booths -- 576 in Kashmir and 2,138 in Jammu.

At least 892 polling stations have been categorised as hypersensitive in this phase -- 428 in Kashmir and 464 in Jammu.

Voters were seen queuing outside polling stations in both Jammu and the Kashmir Valley.

Polling, which started at 8 am, will end at 2 pm.

This phase will decide the fate of 5,575 candidates for 341 sarpanch constituencies and 1,798 panch seats, said State chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra, adding that 85 sarpanchs and 912 panchs have been elected unopposed in this phase.

Some 475,865 electors will be voting for Sarpanch constituencies and 345880 for Panch constituencies.

The first phase-I of the Panchayat polls on November 17 witnessed 74.1 per cent voter turnout. In phase 2 on November 20, the overall polling percentage was 71.1. The third and fourth phases witnessed 71.3 per cent and 75.2 per cent polling respectively. Phase-5 polling on November 29 saw 71.1 per cent voter turnout while the sixth phase held on December 1 recorded 73.6 per cent turnout.

With agency inputs