"All work was done by Congress": Banihal Congress' candidate Vikar Rasool Wani as voting underway in J-K

Ramban (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], September 18 (ANI): Congress candidate from Banihal constituency of Ramban district, Vikar Rasool Wani, after casting his vote on Wednesday, said that only Congress has done the developmental works in the Banihal constituency and it will continue to do so in the future. He further said that neither National Conference nor PDP have contributed in this regard.
Speaking to ANI, Congress candidate from the Banihal Assembly seat, Vikar Rasool Wani, said, "All the work here has been done by the Congress party. You will not find any work of the National Conference and PDP in the Banihal Assembly constituency, it is the Congress party that has worked and it is the Congress party that will work here. The biggest issue is employment, we will work hard on that too and will make every effort to provide employment to the people.
Lashing out at the BJP, Wani said that the BJP created an "emergency-like situation." However, however he expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court for issuing instructions to conduct elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
He further said, "This is my third assembly election and before this, I was the Councillor and Chairman of this area. I have won all the elections and I am winning this election too. BJP snatched away our democratic system and created an emergency-like situation here. But we are very grateful to the Supreme Court, which issued instructions and told the Government of India and the Election Commission that elections should be held in the month of September. The Congress party has done a lot of development here. There is still a lot of development left, so we will try to develop further. The Congress party will get a good lead here. We will win this election with a big lead..."
Congress and National Conference, which are contesting in alliance, have fielded their own candidates from Banihal. The National Conference has fielded Sajad Shaheen from Banihal, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fielded Imtiaz Ahmed Shan and the BJP has fielded Mohammad Saleem Bhat from this seat.
The voter turnout in the first phase of voting for Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections was recorded at 26.72 per cent as of 11 am on Wednesday, according to the Election Commission.
As per the ECI, the constituency breakdown will be Kishtwar recorded 32.69 per cent turnout followed by Doda 32.20 per cent, Ramban 31.25 per cent, Shopian 25.96 per cent, Kulgam 25.95 per cent, Anantnag 25.55 per cent and Pulwama 20.37 per cent.
Voting, that commenced at 7 am today, is underway across the Union Territory. It will conclude at 6 pm.
In the first-phase, 24 assembly constituencies across the Union Territory are voting today; that includes 16 seats in the Kashmir region and 8 seats in the Jammu region. Voting for the second and third phases in J-K will be held on September 25 and October 1, respectively. Vote counting will be held on October 8. (ANI)