Leh, May 20 (IANS): Heavy voter turnout was witnessed in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency on Monday where over 52.02 per cent of the electorate exercised franchise so far.

EC statistics said that in the constituency the Kargil district had polled 57.69 per cent and Leh district 45.90 per cent by 1 p.m.

Although voters had turned out in twos and threes at the beginning of the voting process at 7 a.m. in this constituency, as the day progressed queues of voters started appearing outside the polling stations.

There are 1.84 lakh voters in two districts of Leh and Kargil in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency.

The EC has set up 577 polling stations in the constituency, including 298 in the Leh district and 279 in the Kargil district.

Hanle (Anle) Phu polling station in Leh district is located at 15,000 feet above sea level and is the World’s second-highest polling station. Warshi polling station in the Nubra area of Leh district is the last village and only 20 kilometres from the Siachen Glacier base camp. This polling station has been set up for only five voters belonging to one family.

Leh district has a Buddhist majority while Kargil has a Shia Muslim majority. Three candidates, Tashi Gyalson of the BJP, Tsering Namgyal of the Congress and Haji Hanifa Jan, an independent candidate supported by rebels of the National Conference (NC) and the Congress are in the fray.

As per the terms of an alliance of the INDIA bloc, NC had left Ladakh seat to the Congress. But the rebellion within the local NC and the Congress party has brought the bloc alliance agreement to nought in this constituency.

BJP won this seat in 2014 and 2019.