Bijbehara witnesses lowest polling, Pahalgam highest

Majid Jahangir and Suhail A Shah

Tribune reporters

Anantnag, April 23

The poll boycott call and upsurge in militancy seemed to have played a part in a steep fall in the turnout in the Anantnag district of south Kashmir, which went to the polls on Tuesday. All the six Assembly segments of the district registered voter percentage lower than the 2014 polls.

The district recorded a dismal 13 per cent turnout, which is way below than the 40.21 polling witnessed in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the district. The overall poll percentage in the four districts of the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency was 28.88 in 2014.

Of the six Assembly segments — Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam, the lowest turnout was recorded in Bijbehara at over 2 per cent. In 2014, the figure was over 36 per cent. Bijbehara is the hometown of PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and has been a traditional PDP bastion. The highest turnout was recorded in Pahalgam at over 20 per cent. In the previous elections, Pahalgam had registered over 55 per cent polling.

The Anantnag Assembly segment, which had witnessed 23.75 per cent voting in 2014, accounted for less than 4 per cent votes.

The Dooru Assembly segment, the native town of Congress candidate Ghulam Ahmed Mir, recorded a turnout of over 18 per cent. The Kokernag and Shangus segments, recorded a turnout of over 19 and 15 per cent, respectively.

Booths stay deserted

Most of the polling stations in Bijbehara, the hometown of former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehooba Mufti, remained deserted as most residents did not vote on Tuesday.

The turnout here was a dismal 1.7 per cent with only 1,590 people casting their vote out of the estimated over 93,000 voters. This was the lowest voter turnout across Anantnag district on Tuesday.

The reasons for low turnout ranged from the poll boycott call by separatists, indifference towards the polls and resentment against the PDP.

Even as there were unprecedented security arrangements and presence of mediapersons, the polling stations remained deserted.

People came in trickles to cast their votes and the polling staff waited patiently for the polling time to get over.

“One voter every 30-40 minutes is what we have been receiving. The people do not seem to be interested at all,” a polling officer said at a booth. Of the 477 votes, only 12 votes had been cast at the polling booth by 3 pm.

Accompanied by her daughter, Mehbooba reached Bijbehara at 2.30 pm at the polling booth No. 35. At the booth, only 30 of the total 345 votes were cast.

Mehbooba posed for cameras after voting and told the reporters that she had complete faith in the people.

“They have, in the past, supported me overwhelmingly and I am sure that they will support me this time as well,” she said.