Srinagar, October 10: The voting for the second phase of Jammu and Kashmir urban local body polls is underway for 384 wards in 13 districts including Udhampur and Bandipora in the state. Due to the elections, mobile internet services have been suspended in the entire South Kashmir, while the internet services have been reduced to 2G in rest of the Kashmir. Authorities made unprecedented security arrangements to ensure peaceful polling in the local body elections.

The first phase of the urban local body polls was polled on October 8. In that phase, the voter turned put was only 11 percent. On Monday also, mobile internet services were suspended in South Kashmir. A total of 1283 candidates were in the fray for 422 of the 1,145 wards that went to polls in the first phase. The prime contest in the first round of the elections was between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the resurgent National Panthers Party (NPP). In a significant development, in these municipal polls, first-time electronic voting machines are being used, in accordance with the rules that have been amended in 2016.

The municipal elections in the state will be conducted in four phases. Votes for the third and the fourth phases will be polled on October 13 and October 16. The counting of votes will take place on October 20 after all the phases are over. Before the first phase of elections, Governor of the state Satya Pal Malik held a review meeting at Raj Bhavan to discuss security arrangements during the elections.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 09:22 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).