VP Naidu: 98.3% voter turnout in BDC polls in J&K 'truly remarkable'

Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday took to micro-blogging site Twitter to congratulate the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the historic BDC polls conducted in Jammu, Kashmir, Leh and Ladakh on October 24. Venkaiah Naidu wrote that it is truly remarkable that the maiden block-level elections in Jammu and Kashmir saw 98.3% people exercising their franchise. He congratulated the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh for reaffirming their faith in the democracy and the administration for the successful conduct of elections.

'It would make India's Parliament proud'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter, on Friday, October 25, to share the news about the successful BDC polls. For this, he congratulated the Indian Parliament for taking the historic decision to abrogate Article 370, which ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August. PM Modi wrote, "It would make India’s Parliament proud that due to their historic decision in August this year, the people of J&K have been able to exercise their democratic right with exceptional enthusiasm, as seen in the historic turnout of 98% that too without violence or disturbance".

BDC poll results

The Jammu and Kashmir Block Development elections were held on Thursday and the results were declared in the evening; while independent candidates won 217 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) candidates won 81 seats and one seat respectively. The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party won eight seats. This was the first electoral exercise in the region since the revocation of Article 370 on August 5.

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98.3% voter turnout

The elections were boycotted by regional parties such as the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Jammu and Kashmir Electoral Officer, Shailendra Kumar held a press conference in the evening where he said that as per the data received by the authorities, the total voter turnout was 98.3%, with Srinagar witnessing the highest turnout of 100% and Pulwama and Shopian being the lowest at 86% and 85%. He also added that the security deployment was the same as that of the Lok Sabha election, and no additional security was deployed.

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