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%.

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.

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.