Nearly 3 per cent rise in voters in Jammu and Kashmir from recent Lok Sabha polls

JAMMU: Notwithstanding the ravaging floods in Jammu and Kashmir, the electorate in the state has risen to 72 lakh for the Assembly polls, an increase of 2.7 per cent from the number of voters in the state in recent Lok Sabha elections.

"There has been increase in electorate from nearly 70 lakh in Parliamentary elections this year to over 72 lakh in the coming Assembly elections in the state," a senior officer of state Election department told PTI quoting the recently upgraded data.

As per the data, there has been increase of 2,34,162 new voters from 6,991,397 voters registered in the Lok Sabha polls to 7,225,559 voters, who will be seen exercising their franchise in the coming Assembly elections to choose 87 new representatives to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

The state faced the worst floods and landslides that battered several areas of Jammu and Kashmir particularly Srinagar, killing over 250 people, apart from heavy shelling by Pakistan in August and October along the Indo-Pak border, killing 11 people and injuring over 95 others amid migration of over 32,000 people from border belts in Jammu frontier.

Kashmir valley has registered an increase of 1,53,423 voters from the Lok Sabha poll electorate of 35,99,772 to 37,53,195 voters for the coming Assembly polls, according to the data.

Similarly, in Jammu there has been an increase of 81,698 voters from 32,29,740 electorate in Lok Sabha polls to 33,11,438 voters at present, it said.

However, Ladakh region has shown a decline of 3,959 voters from 1,64,885 voters in Lok Sabha polls to 1,60,926 at present, it said.

As per the figures, there was an electorate of 61,65,108 registered in 2002 Assembly elections in the state followed by 64,61,757 voters in 2008 and 69,94,284 during this year's Parliamentary polls.

Figures point to increase in electorate by 10,60,451 voters from 2002 Assembly polls to 2014 Assembly poll figures, followed by 7,63,802 voters from 2008 Assembly elections till now.

While there has been an increase in electorate in Kashmir valley and Jammu region from 2002 to 2008 and 2014, Ladakh's electorate has decreased from 1,74,154 voters in 2002 Assembly elections to 1,51,022 voters in 2008 to 1,60,928 voters at present.