People on Tuesday queued up outside polling stations in almost all 40 Assembly spread over seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir where polling was held in the third and final phase of assembly elections.
Over 39.18 lakh eligible voters were eligible to exercise the right to franchise to decide the fate of 415 candidates, including two former deputy chief ministers Tara Chand and Muzaffar Baig.
The voting, which commenced at 7 am, progressed peacefully amid tight security arrangements.
The assembly segments in Kashmir where polling was held today included Baramulla, Uri, Rafiabad, Pattan, Gulmarg, Sopore and Wagoora-Kreeri in Baramulla district; Kupwara, Karnah, Trehgam, Handwara, Lolab and Langate in Kupwara district; and Bandipora, Sonawari and Gurez in Bandipora district.
A total of 202 candidates are in the fray in these 16 segments.
Voting was also held in 24 assembly constituencies in Udhampur, Samba and Kathua districts in the Jammu region.
More than 400 companies of security forces, including paramilitary and armed police personnel were been deployed to ensure smooth voting.
A 100-year-old Mala Begum cast her vote at the Pink Polling Station at Chattibandi in Bandipora and another elderly woman identified as Khatija, carried on shoulders by her son, cast her vote in the Uri assembly segment.
The traditional boycott bastions of Sopore and Baramulla towns in north Kashmir witnessed the highest turnout in an election in last three decades.
The third and final phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls was held on Tuesday. The polling in the 40 Assembly segments across seven districts, including the winter capital Jammu, began at 7 am and concluded at 6 pm. The votes will be counted on October 8.
According to the election commission data, Sopore town, which was once a hotbed of separatism and militancy, witnessed a turnout of 41.44 per cent -- 11 per cent more than the 2014 Assembly polls.
In the Baramulla Assembly seat, nearly 48 per cent of voters exercised their franchise. The turnout in this election was 8 per cent more than in 2014.
The Pattan Assembly segment also registered a higher voter turnout compared to 2014 as nearly 61 per cent electorate cast their votes.
The parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s brother Aijaz Guru contest the polls from Sopore as an independent candidate.
In Baramulla, too, Jamaat-e-Islami-backed independent candidate Abdul Rehman Shalla entering the fray seems to have had a positive effect on the voter turnout.
Election officials said the turnout figures could go slightly up as data was still being collected from some of the remote polling stations.
While the campaign for the third phase of polling was intense, the voting passed off peacefully with no major incident reported from anywhere.