From Omar Abdullah and Ravinder Raina to Altaf Bukhari and Tariq Hamid Karra, here's a look at the key candidates in the second phase of the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.

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.

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,

The voter turnout in the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections failed to match the voter turnout in the 2014 election when it was still a state and not a Union Territory.

Jammu and Kashmir saw a 61.38% voter turnout in the first phase of assembly elections, according to the Election Commission of India. Male turnout was 63.75%, while female turnout was 58.96%, and third gender turnout reached 40%.

PM Modi praised the historic voter turnout in J&K assembly polls, promising development and statehood, while criticizing dynastic politics in the region.