High security in Anantnag as Mehbooba faces Beg

Out of the six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, Anantnag is going to polls on Thursday with another 116 constituencies across the country. The seat will witness a direct contest between the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party as the constituency is currently held by NC’s Mirza Mehboob Beg. [caption id=“attachment_1493785” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Polling parties leave for election duty on the eve of Lok Sabha elections in Anantnag district on Wednesday. PTI[/caption] Anantnag is also important as Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party, is fighting the elections from the seat. She will be facing Beg primarily among other candidates. The AAP has fielded Tanveer Maqbool Dar who is the son of former Union minister Mohammad Maqbool Dar. Mushtaq Ahmad Malik from BJP will aslo contest theb polls from the seat along with eight other candidates. The polls in the Kashmir Valley are held under the shadow of guns as a sarpanch was gunned down in Anantnag by militants few days back. Over 83 percent of the 1,615 polling stations in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency are vulnerable to militant attacks. Among these polling stations 690, have been categorised as hypersensitive by the Election Commission. The Anantnag Assembly segment is the only other constituent of the Lok Sabha seat where no polling station has been designated as normal. The Anantnag Lok Sabha seat has 12.72 lakh voters including 6,01,688 female voters.