Voting for the second phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections began at 7 am on Wednesday, with 26 out of the 90 seats in the Union territory going to polls.

These are the first Assembly elections in the Union territory since the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

More than 250 candidates are in the fray in six districts: Ganderbal, Srinagar and Budgam in the Kashmir valley, and Jammu region’s Reasi, Rajouri and Poonch.

At 11 am, the Union territory had recorded a voter turnout of 24.10%. The highest turnout at 33.06% was seen in Poonch and the lowest at 11.67% was recorded in Srinagar.

Among the prominent faces contesting on Wednesday is former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah. He is fighting against Peoples Democratic Party leader Bashir Ahmad Mir and jailed cleric and Independent Sarjan Barkati in Ganderbal.

Abdullah is also contesting from the Budgam constituency against Peoples Democratic Party’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi.

Congress’ Jammu and Kashmir chief Tariq Hameed Karra is fighting the polls from the Central Shaltengh constituency with support from ally National Conference. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina is seeking re-election from the Nowshera seat.

Apni Party chief Altaf Bhukhari is contesting against National Conference candidate Mushtaq Guroo, Peoples Democratic Party’s Mohammed Iqbal Trumboo and BJP’s Hilal Ahmad Wani in the Channapura constituency.

Polling in seven of the nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes is also being held in the second phase.

More than 25 lakh voters are eligible to vote in this phase and over 13,000 polling staff have been deployed across 3,500 polling stations, reported PTI.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people in Jammu and Kashmir to “cast their vote and play their important role in strengthening democracy”.

The Ministry of External Affairs has invited a group of senior diplomats, mainly from the American, European and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations embassies, to visit Kashmir “for a first-hand account of the ongoing election process”, The Hindu quoted officials as saying.

Responding to this, Abdullah told The Indian Express that it was strange that the Union government was organising “guided tours” to observe elections when it “always talks about Jammu and Kashmir being an internal matter for India and discourages other countries from commenting”.

Abdullah asked: “If diplomats can be brought on guided jaunts, why have all foreign journalists – including those with OCI [Overseas Citizen of India] cards – had their requests for permission to cover the elections turned down?”

The first phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir on 24 seats saw a voter turnout of 61%.

Also read: Why the election noise in Kashmir is a symptom of democratic deep freeze