Srinagar: Ignoring the boycott call given by separatists and braving cold weather, 49 per cent of the 14.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the penultimate phase of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
Barring minor clashes between supporters of rival parties at a dozen places, polling in all the 18 constituencies spread over three districts of Kashmir, including summer capital Srinagar, and one district in Jammu region was by and large peaceful.
Despite severe cold, long queues of voters were seen outside the polling stations to exercise their franchise at many polling stations.
The trends in voter turnout in eight constituencies of Srinagar city, which have witnessed low voter turnout in the past elections due to separatist boycott calls, pointed towards a higher poll percentage this time.
Stringent security arrangements had been put in place to ensure incident-free polling across the State, officials said.