At 60%, J&K retains its voter turnout in post-Art 370 election

The 2014 overall Assembly poll turnout was 66%, with the 24 constituencies voting in the first phase registering almost the same voting percentage as Wednesday’s. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, overall polling was 58.46%.

Jammu region, where eight seats went to vote, saw heavy polling, though at some places lesser than in 2014. The three Assembly seats in Kishtwar district recorded the maximum turnouts, with Inderwal witnessing 80.06% polling, followed by Padder-Nagseni (76.80%) and Kishtwar (75.04 %).

While G M Saroori, who earlier represented Inderwal as a Congress MLA, is contesting from the seat as an Independent, from Kishtwar, the BJP has fielded Shagun Parihar, the daughter of a BJP leader killed by terrorists. In 2014, Kishtwar had seen 78.23% polling.

In Doda district, Doda West recorded 74.14% polling. Doda 70.21%, and Bhaderwah 65.27%. Doda has seen the killing of six Army personnel, including two Captains, apart from four terrorists, since June this year. In 2014, the turnouts in Doda and Doda West, which have seen changes in delimitation, were slightly higher.

Banihal and Ramban recorded 71.28% and 67.34 % voting, respectively.

For the 16 seats in the Valley, all falling in South Kashmir, the turnout was more or less the same as in 2014 and 2008. While 53.55% voters cast their votes here Wednesday, the turnout in 2014 was 54.93%. But for the first time in three decades, the security force deployment was not overawing and people were allowed inside the polling booths without frisking.

As per election officials, there was 54.77% polling in the seven constituencies of Anantnag district (it was a higher at 60% in 2014 and 63.20% in 2008); 46.66% in the four seats of Pulwama district (was low at 44% in 2014 and 46.09% in 2008 as well); 62.64% in the three seats of Kulgam district (it was 59% in 2014 and 64.45% in 2008 here); and 53.64% in the two seats in Shopian district (a fall from 48% in 2014 and 50.65% in 2008).

The biggest drop was witnessed in Shangus-Anantnag segment where only 52.94% voters exercised their franchise against 68.78% 10 years ago. Similarly, in D H Pora segment, earlier known as Noorabad, 68% turned out to vote against a massive 80.92% in 2014. However, D H Pora remained the seat with the highest turnout in Kashmir in the first phase, with Pahalgam following close behind. Kulgam and Kokernag also saw good polling.

The National Conference’s Sakina Itoo and the PDP’s Gulzar Ahmad Dar are in the race from D H Pora, while from Pahalgam, key Apni Party leader Rafi Ahmad Mir is contesting. Kulgam is one of the seats where a Jamaat-e-Islami backed Independent is in the race, while Kokernag is one of the newly reserved ST seats in Kashmir.

D H Pora’s high voting was in keeping with the tradition here of brisk polling, even in the times of election boycott. “Others have realised now what we realised two decades ago,” said Sameer Ahmad, a 25-year-old voter at its Gurri village. “There is no alternative to voting. Only our vote can resolve our issues.”

The seat trailing at the bottom was Anantnag (41.58%). Only one of the four constituencies in Pulwama district – the Pulwama Assembly segment – crossed the 50% mark. Among the candidates from the Pulwama seat is PDP youth wing leader Waheed ur Rehman Para.
Some 7 km from Pulwama town at Bandzoo village, 102 votes out of 991 had been polled by 9.30 am. The polling station, housed in the Government High School, would barely witness voting figures cross double digits in the past. “This vote is a referendum against the BJP and its policies in Kashmir,” said a 35-year-old voter, who also voted in the Lok Sabha polls.

In militancy-hit Shopian’s Gagran, 230 votes out of 1,142 had been polled in the first three-and-a-half hours at a polling booth housed in the degree college. “We have voluntarily come out to cast our ballot this time,” said one of the waiting voters, who works as a driver. “We don’t want anything, we don’t want development, we don’t want jobs, we only want an end to suppression.”

At Bogam, a village seen as a Jamaat-e-Islami stronghold, where the Independent candidate backed by it, Sayar Ahmad Reshi, organised a massive poll rally, a youth said: “In the past, you would see only a few votes being polled in this village… When the Jamaat came out this time to vote, others came out in much larger numbers.”

At Mahipora polling booth of Kulgam, which would witness near total boycott in the past, 301 votes out of 799 had been polled by 11.30 am.

Rubina, a 29-year-old standing in a queue to cast her vote in Srigufwara-Bijbehara, from where PDP chief and former CM Mehooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija is contesting, said: “In the national elections, we did not count for much – just three seats from the Valley. This election is about protecting our future.”

Abdul Rahim Wagay, a visually challenged voter, said it was for the first time since 1977 that he had voted. He called it a step towards “ending the difficulties of the last few years”.

At the Government Middle School in Marahama, 42-year-old Ghulam Qadir said he too was voting after a long time as he wanted to be “heard”. However, he added, he had little hope of Article 370 being restored. “The Article gave us protections that we took for granted. However, the government at the Centre will not let (restoration) happen. We are asking for the return of Article 370 from the very same people who took it away.”

Many voters in the area spoke about the pain of families whose young men had been taken into detention in the period since August 5, 2019. “At least eight boys from this village have been in detention since 2019. If we have an MLA, we could at least request them to consider their case,” 48-year-old Mohammad Ayoub said.

At a polling booth in Tral, which saw sluggish voting, Neelofar said she was back after having voted in the Lok Sabha polls recently. She was the last person from her family to find a government job, she said. “Most of the people I know who are employed, have been employed since there was a state government here. Now it seems like all avenues for employment have dried up. I hope that this changes.”

However, despite the visible enthusiasm, the final poll percentage increased only marginally. Ghulam Mohammad Mir of Vehil said the reason was that this was harvest time in the Valley. “People are busy. Otherwise, you would have seen more come out to vote,” he said.