Grenade attack on a Pulwama Polling Station Kashmir

Clashes between protesters and security forces near polling booth at Murran in Pulwama
Clashes between protesters and security forces near polling booth at Murran in Pulwama

A grenade attack took place in a polling station at Pulwama, in Jammu and Kashmir. The 5th phase of Lok Sabha elections took place in 51 constituencies of 7 states. In Jammu and Kashmir, the polling started with a violent note where militants attacked with grenades towards a polling booth located at Pulwama. The petrol bomb was thrown at a polling booth set up in a school in Shopian. Although there had been no casualties reported in this incident. The election is being held for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, in which the Pulwama district comes under. Due to various security reasons, the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled in three phases.

There are 18 candidates in contention along with former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (President of People Democratic Party). The total number of voters in Anantnag constituency is 13.97 lakhs and the voting is spread across 3 phases 23rd April, 29th April, 6th May respectively.

On May 6, there was zero percent voting recorded in 40 booths of Bijbehara region. The final turnout in the Lok Sabha election is registered with 8.76%, which is very low when compared to 28.54% recorded during the 2014 LS election. The election for 542 Lok Sabha Constituencies is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been cancelled due to excess use of money power. The vote counting is scheduled to be held on 23rd May 2019.