Union Minister Nitin Gadkari emphasized that the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are not about the victory of any political alliance but about ensuring the region's prosperity and peace.

Voters queued outside polling stations in India's Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday to vote in the first provincial election being held in a decade in the Himalayan region that has grappled with years of militant violence.

A phased election for choosing a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir has opened in the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

Once a powerful force in the region, separatist movement Jamaat-e-Islami’s surprise return to electoral politics after decades of boycotting elections in Kashmir has surprised many. Maroosha Muzaffar

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, residents are voting in elections that some hope will lead to restoration of the territory's statehood, which ended when it became a federally governed territory in 2019.

India’s troubled region of Jammu and Kashmir saw a brisk turnout amid tight security as voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in the first regional legislative elections in a decade. The region, which has seen years of separatist violence and is at the centre of a dispute between India and Pakistan,

Voting got underway in the 24 seats across seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir at 7 AM on Wednesday. For the first time in the last 10 years, voters in the state are casting their votes in the assembly elections under a heavy security blanket in the Union Territory to ensure the peaceful completion of the first phase of polling.