India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the main city in Himalayan Kashmir to campaign for his party in the staggered local election in a first such vote since New Delhi stripped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.

With fresh faces emerging to challenge the traditional political powerhouses, the region’s political dynamics already appear to be changing.

Voters turned out in large numbers as a three-phase election began in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, marking the first regional polls in the disputed Himalayan region in almost a decade. Th