Jammu/Srinagar | Counting of votes for 90 Assembly constituencies will begin in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday morning, the final lap of an electoral journey that will give the union territory its first elected government since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.
The Congress-National Conference alliance, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the main stakeholders in the keenly watched assembly election that comes five years after the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
As political parties assessed their chances, the administration was busy on Monday finalising arrangements, including security, at designated centres across all 20 district headquarters.
According to Election Commission officials, a three-tier security set up has been put in place at all the counting centres to ensure that all goes well in the restive border UT, long a stress point and witness to repeated instances of terrorism, insurgency and infiltration from across the border.
Across centres in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region, security personnel had taken up position and were standing guard.
The first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014 were held over three phases.
Of the 90 seats in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region, 24 voted in the first phase, 26 in the second and 40 in the third.
The fate of 873 candidates, vying for a seat in the 90-member house, has been sealed and known by Tuesday evening.
The turnout was 63.45 per cent, less than the 65.52 percent recorded in the 2014 assembly elections.
Prominent among those in the fray are NC leader Omar Abdullah (contesting from Budgam and Ganderbal assembly segments), Sajad Gani Lone of People's Conference (from Handwara and Kupwara seats), Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hamid Karra (Batamaloo) and BJP state president Ravindra Raina (Nowshera seat).
The other notable contestants are AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir (Dooru), PDP leaders Waheed Para (Pulwama), Iltija Mufti (Bijbehara), Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari (Chanapora), CPI(M) veteran Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami (Kulgam) and former deputy chief ministers Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tara Chand.
The exit polls on Saturday have put the NC-Congress alliance in pole position with the regional party getting the lion's share of the seats.
The BJP is expected to slightly improve on its tally of 25 seats which it had won in the 2014 assembly polls while the PDP, which had won 28 seats in the polls held 10 years ago, is predicted to win less than 10 seats this time.
If the exit polls are to be believed, new and emerging parties, including the People's Conference, Apni Party, Democratic Azad Party of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Awami Ittehad Party of Lok Sabha member Sheikh Abdul Rashid, don't stand much of a chance.
These parties along with independents are expected to win around 10 seats.
A day ahead of the results, the politics was already hotting up.
Giving his views on the much discussed question of whether the Congress-NC would take the help of the PDP if needed, NC president Farooq Abdullah said on Monday that his party was open to the idea of taking support of Mehbooba Mufti's party to form government in the union territory.
He also flayed the move to give powers to the Lieutenant Governor for nominating members to the five reserved seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, and said his party would approach the Supreme Court if the BJP-led Centre went ahead with it.
Abdullah, who ruled himself out of the race for chief minister's post, said statehood should be restored to Jammu and Kashmir so that the new government has powers to address the people's problems.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina asserted that his party will emerge as the single largest party in the region by securing 35 seats and will form government with the help of like-minded and independent candidates.
He also said that the nomination of five MLAs by the LG is being carried out in accordance with the Reorganisation Act.
"All of the five MLAs nominated by LG are BJP members or associated with the party. Brazen pre result rigging & shameful manipulation," added PDP leader Iltija Mufti on X.
"Irrespective of who gets the majority tomorrow, my humble request to the INDIA bloc, PDP and other regional parties is that they should unite for statehood. They should not form a government till statehood is restored," Lok Sabha member Baramulla Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer told reporters.
Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole, who visited the counting centre at Degree College Ganderbal on Sunday, has assured seamless counting with due accuracy, transparency and adherence to protocols.
He has emphasised on transparency, ensuring that both the media and the public stay informed of the election results as they unfold.
All concerned officials have been directed to ensure that all necessary measures are implemented in strict accordance with the guidelines of the EC.
Only authorised counting agents of contesting candidates and staff posted on counting duty will be allowed inside the counting halls.
The tally of votes for each candidate will be announced after every round of counting on the public address system outside the counting halls, an official said.
