J-K polls: Valmiki community votes for first time in assembly polls

Jammu: Long denied the right to vote, members of the Valmiki community exercised their franchise for the first time in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections on Tuesday and termed it as a "historic moment".

The Valmikis were originally brought to J-K in 1957 from Punjab's Gurdaspur district for sanitation work by the



state government.

"I am a first-time voter at the age of 45. In my lifetime. We are thrilled and filled with enthusiasm to participate in J-K's assembly elections for the first time. It is like a big festival for us," Gharu Bhati, who voted at a polling station in Jammu, said.