The third phase of the Jammu and Kashmir urban local body elections began across 300 polling stations at 6 am and ended at 4 Pm on Saturday amid stringent security measures. As many as 365 candidates are in the fray for the elections. A thick security blanket has been thrown around the polling stations, while security forces are conducting area domination exercises to ensure an incident-free election, officials said.

Out of the 300 polling stations, 241 stations – 222 in the Kashmir Division and 19 in Jammu Division – have been categorised hypersensitive, police said. Ninety-six wards of eight urban local bodies, comprising a total electorate of 1,93,990 electors.

Here is your 5-point on J-K Municipal Elections 2018 3rd phase:

1. Highest voter turnout recorded in Samba district

   Jammu’s Samba district recorded the highest voter turnout of 81.5 per cent on Saturday. In Samba district, polls were held for the four municipal committees of Samba, Ramgarh, Vijaypur and Bari Brahamana.

   Two grooms, Arun Singh Jamwal & Shambu Ram cast their votes before marriage in Jammu‘s Samba district.

   Two grooms, Arun Singh Jamwal & Shambu Ram cast their votes before marriage in #Jammu‘s #Samba district. The total poll percentage in the district was 81.82 @sambapolice @ManhasArun#Jammu #Kashmir #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/OPFOvF59uf

   — Yogesh Sagotra ✈ (@JournalistJmu) October 13, 2018

2.  3.5 per cent of the electorate voted in the third phase of the urban local body polls in militancy-hit Kashmir Valley whereas the frontier town of Uri in Baramulla district recorded a 75. 34 per cent turnout, bucking the trend in the Valley, which has witnessed low polling in the first two of the four-phase elections.

3. Voting for the third phase of municipal polls ended peacefully on Saturday in Jammu & Kashmir’s Samba, Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla districts, with an overall turnout of 16.3 per cent, news agency IANS reported.

Read also: Lived through the British Raj; centenarian votes in JMC elections

4. According to news agency PTI, the historic Lal Chowk ward of Srinagar, which has an electoral strength 5,827, saw only 71 voters exercise their franchise during the day.

5. Indian opener Gautam Gambhir and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were involved in a Twitter spat on the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Mannan Wani. The former opener held politicians at fault for Mannan Wani, a scholar from Aligarh Muslim University, taking to terrorism, post which the National Conference leader said Gambhir was not aware of the situation in the state.

This man wouldn’t be able to find Manan’s home district on a map much less his village & yet he presumes to know what drives young men in Kashmir to pick up the gun. Mr Gambhir clearly knows less about Kashmir than I do about cricket & I know almost nothing. https://t.co/oZ8hc5VcgH

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 12, 2018

The first phase of the polls covering three districts of Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri on October 8 recorded 65 per cent voter turnout.

In the second phase, on October 10, Kathua, Udhampur, Ramban, Doda, Reasi and Kishtwar districts witnessed 78.6 per cent polling.

The municipal elections that are taking place after 13 years in the state are being held in four phases, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh electors.

A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1,145 wards Voting for the fourth and final phase of these elections will be held on October 16.

[With inputs from online reports ]