Baramulla headed for highest turnout in last 8 Lok Sabha elections: EC

New Delhi, May 20 (PTI) The Election Commission said on Monday that Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir was headed for its “highest” turnout in the last eight Lok Sabha elections with 54.21 per cent polling recorded till 5 pm.
The constituency has 17,37,865 registered voters.
In a statement, the poll panel said after a record voter turnout of 38.49 per cent in the Srinagar constituency, Baramulla now seems headed for its highest turnout in the last eight Lok Sabha elections.

A voter turnout of 54.21 per cent was recorded as of 5 pm in the districts of Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Budgam, it said.
Polling took place in 2,103 polling stations across the Baramulla parliamentary constituency with live webcasting at the polling stations. Voting started at 7 am across the constituency, with long queues of enthusiastic voters waiting to cast their vote, the EC said.
In 2019, the constituency recorded a turnout of 34.6 per cent, whereas in 1989, it was at a mere 5.48 per cent, the commission said.
There are 22 candidates in the fray this time from the Baramulla seat.

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah, People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone and jailed head of the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid are among the key candidates in the contest.
Earlier, in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election, the Srinagar seat, covering the districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Pulwama, Budgam and Shopian partly, recorded a voter turnout of 38.49 per cent, its highest since 1996.
This is the first general election in the Valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the poll authority pointed out.