Srinagar, Nov. 11 -- Voters in central Kashmir's Budgam district queued early on Tuesday outside several polling stations to vote in the by-elections.
The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had won both Budgam and Ganderbal seats in last year's Assembly elections, vacated Budgam, choosing to retain Ganderbal. Omar had won Budgam with 35,804 votes, defeating PDP's Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, who secured 17,445 votes.
A total of 17 candidates are in the fray, including seven independents, but the contest is expected to be a direct face-off between the NC's Aga Syed Mahmood and PDP's Aga Muntazir. The other prominent candidates include Bharatiya Janata Party's Aga Syed Mohsin, Awami Ittehad Party's Nazir Ahmad Khan,...