Amid tight security arrangements, people are voting in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar seat, the first major polling taking place in the region since special status was abrogated by the BJP government on August 5, 2019 and the erstwhile state was also downgraded into two union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Over 17.4 lakh electorate are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 24 candidates in the seat.

The Srinagar parliamentary constituency is spread across five districts namely Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal in central Kashmir and Pulwama and Shopian in south Kashmir districts.

Polling began at 7 am across 2,135 polling stations in the constituency.

As many as 17.7 crore people are expected to cast their votes in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections which is currently underway on Monday across 96 seats spread over nine states and a Union Territory.

In this phase, voters will decide the fates of 1,717 candidates across 1.92 lakh polling stations under the supervision of over 19 lakh election officials.

Voting is expected to continue until 6 pm.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) said polling time in certain assembly segments of the 17 parliamentary constituencies in Telangana have been increased to improve voters’ participation, media reports said.