Jammu And Kashmir Assembly Election 2024:  The beautiful valley of Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing polls after 10 years. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the 2024 assembly elections are scheduled to be held in three phases. The first phase began on Wednesday, September 18, while the other two phases will take place on September 25 and October 1. The counting of all votes is set for October 8.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), more than 23 lakh voters are going to vote for 19 candidates in phase 1, including 90 independents, contesting for 24 assembly constituencies in which eight come under three districts of Jammu region while 16 in four districts of Kashmir valley. A total of 14,000 polling staff will oversee the process at 3,276 polling stations.

Here are the key highlights for the Jammu And Kashmir assembly election:

On polling day, PM Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah urged the people of Jammu and Kashmir to achieve the highest voter turnout.

Prominent candidates contesting in phase 1 from the Kashmir region include PDP chief daughter Iltija Mufti, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami from CPI (M), and Ghulam Ahmad Mir from Congress.

In Jammu, key candidates are former ministers Sajjad Kitchloo (NC), Khalid Najib Suharwardy (NC) Vikar Rasool Wani (Congress), Abdul Majid Wani (DPAP), Sunil Sharma (BJP), Shakti Raj Parihar (Doda west), and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, a three-time MLA who is fighting as an Independent.

This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since Article 370 was revoked in August 2019. Today, the Election Commission has deployed 14,000 polling staff to manage the voting process at 3,276 polling stations.

As per ECI, in phase 1, approx 5.66 lakh youths are going to vote today.