Despite ‘left in cold by all’, Kashmiri Pandits make a beeline to vote in J&K Phase 1 polls

Voting at special Jammu booths for various Kashmir seats, several community members hope some candidates would note their plight and take action

Ex-serviceman Triloki Nath Bhat said none of the candidates visited Jagti Township – the largest settlement of over 4,200 houses built for Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu. (Express photo)

Despite none of the six candidates from the Pahalgam Assembly seat seeking his vote, 61-year-old ex-serviceman Triloki Nath Bhat turned up in the scorching heat on Wednesday at a special polling booth for the Kashmiri Pandit migrants in Jagti Township on the outskirts of Jammu on Wednesday to cast his vote.

“I do not have any expectations from any government. No one has thought about us for the past 35 years. The party which forms the government after these polls will also do nothing for us and will try to reap political benefits from the plight of migrant Kashmiri Pandits,” he said.

Bhat said none of the candidates visited Jagti Township – the largest settlement of over 4,200 houses built for Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu – adding that they might have thought that the community does not influence the outcome of the polls. “We get water once in four-five days and the quality of drinking water is so bad that one cannot even have a bath with it,” he rued.

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The former army man, who migrated to Jammu from Pahalgam in 1990, has visited Kashmir only once in 2019. Only one of his three daughters is employed in Kashmir under the PM job scheme, while the other two have never visited the region.

Bhat was among the over 35,000 migrant Kashmiri Pandits who were eligible to vote for the 16 Assembly seats that went to the polls in the first phase Wednesday in four districts – Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam – of South Kashmir.

Like Bhat, 20-year-old Shivam Bhat and his father Maharaj Krishan, who cast their votes for the Dooru Assembly seat, have a similar story to share. A final year graduation student, Shivam was born in Jammu in 2004, almost 14 years after his parents migrated from their home town.

The father-son duo also admitted that none of the Dooru candidates sought their votes but said that they were keen to give a chance to someone who may think about Kashmiri Pandits, especially the large number of educated but unemployed youth among the community.

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A first-time voter, Shivam, who was unaware about any of the contestants in his constituency, visited Kashmir for the first time in June this year.

Rajesh Koul and Upendra Krishan cast their votes at the special booth for the Dooru and Anantnag West constituencies, respectively, as they “did not want to waste their fundamental right”. They hoped some leaders would take note of the community’s plight which, they claimed, has been “ignored by all”.