J&K wraps up, with jump in voting from LS polls; boycott bastions turn out in strength

The overall voting for the three phases of J&K elections came to 63.45%, compared to overall figures of 57.89% for the Lok Sabha and 65.84% for the 2014 Assembly elections.

In the third and final phase Tuesday, voting was held in 40 Assembly segments – 24 in Jammu and 16 in Kashmir. While the 16 seats of North Kashmir saw polling drop by over 5% from 2014, in the 24 segments of Jammu, there was a slightly steeper fall, at over 6%, from 2014.

The turnout in Phases 1 and 2 was also higher than in the Lok Sabha elections. While seven districts in Phase 1 recorded 61.38% turnout, the figure was 60% in the general elections. Similarly, six districts in Phase 2 recorded 57.31% overall polling compared to 52.17% in the Lok Sabha polls.

However, as compared to the 2014 Assembly elections, the third phase recorded a marked dip in turnout, going up to 15%.

Like seen in the other two phases of J&K elections, polling started briskly in the morning Tuesday, but the pace wore off as the hours went by.

In North Kashmir, which has 16 Assembly seats now compared to 15 before the 2022 delimitation, 11 seats saw a decrease in poll percentage from 2014. The four where polling saw an increase were Sopore, Baramulla, Wagoora and Pattan.

Compared to the recent Lok Sabha polls, 14 seats saw an increase in polling. The two seats that saw a fall were Handwara and Langate, with polling dropping by 3% each.

By 8.30 am, 117 of the 1,396 votes had already been polled at Jalal Sahib, a neighbourhood in old Baramulla town that stayed away from polling booths in the past. By the end of the day, Baramulla constituency had polled 54% votes, a jump of around 15% from 2014.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Engineer Rashid had won the Barmaulla seat defeating veterans Omar Abdullah and Sajad Lone. One of the candidates for these polls from Baramulla was Rashid’s brother, contesting from the Langate Assembly segment. Here, too, polling was brisk, with 480 out of 973 votes polled by midday, though by the end, Langate was among the laggards.

“We are voting because we have issues, identity issues, developmental issues and employment issues,” said Ghulam Rasool, a resident.

By a little after noon, 590 votes of the total 1,901 had been polled in far-off Zachaldara village of Handwara, from where People’s Conference Sajad Lone is up against the National Conference’s Chowdhary Ramzan. Like Langate, in Handwara, polling was lower than the Lok Sabha polls.

Polling, however, remained slow in Sopore, a separatist stronghold that has boycotted elections over the last three decades. By 2 pm, 362 out of 1,370 votes had been polled in the four booths at Government Degree College. Flashing his inked finger, a voter declared: “This one is for the identity of Kashmir… I have voted for the first time in my life.”

While Sopore saw the lowest turnout, at 45%, this was a jump of almost 15% from the 2014 Assembly elections. In the Lok Sabha polls, Sopore saw 48% polling.

Bilal Ahmad (30) of Ferozpora, falling in the Gulmarg Assembly segment, said he didn’t vote in 2014, but feels “a sense of duty” this time. “More than any previous election, this decides our future. Kaagazon ki pareshaniyan hain (There are so many issues with documents),” he says, talking about the difficulty in securing police verification for passport and other services.

District-wise, there was 59.84% polling in the seven seats of Baramulla (up from 57.71% in 2014), 65.81% in the six seats of Kupwara (down from 71.98% in 2014) and 67.57% in the three seats of Bandipore (down from 74.49% in 2014). In Jammu region, the 11 seats saw a polling of 70.25% (down from 75.15 in 2014). While Udhampur’s four seats saw 75.87% polling (a drop from 76.68% in 2014), Samba’s three seats saw 75.22% voting (down from 79.66%) and Kathua’s six seats 72.23% (down from 77.11%).

In a post on X, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha congratulated the people of J&K “for a record turnout in the final phase of the Assembly elections”, saying it was “a testimony to vibrant democracy in J&K and people’s faith in democratic values”. “Transparent, free & fair assembly polls 2024 will be written in golden letters,” he wrote.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said: “J&K Assembly elections have marked a significant deepening of democracy which will echo in the pages of history… democracy is taking root more profoundly than ever before.”

An Election Commission statement said that J&K elections had passed off without a law and order incident, compared to 170 such incidents in 2014. No re-polls had to be called, the EC said.