ANANTNAG: Campaigning, which remained by and large peaceful despite threat perception, came to an end on Sunday in Anantnag district, the first among four districts to go to polls on April 23 in Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency.
The election to militancy-hit Anantnag Lok Sabha seat will be conducted in three phases — April 23, April 29 and May 6 — during which 13.93 lakh voters will decide the fate of 18 candidates, including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) has reduced the polling by two hours in the constituency. The polling will now be held between 0700 hrs to 1600 hrs for security reasons.
Returning Officer (RO) for Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency (PC), Khalid Jahangir, told UNI that all arrangements, including three-tire security, have been put in place for conducting the elections in secure and peaceful manner.
Election to the Lok Sabha seat will be held district wise as announced by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on their respective date, he said.
He said on April 23, polling will be held for Anantnag district only. Similarly, he said on April 29, voter from Kulgam district will exercise their franchise.
On May 6, polling will be held in Shopian and Pulwama districts respectively, he added.
He said Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) for polling stations with regard to power supply, furniture, water supply and other required facilities are being put in place.
The ramp facilities have also been ensured at the polling stations, he said.
Webcasting will be made at 28 polling locations in Anantnag district, he said.
The campaigning, which came to an end on Sunday, so far witnessed some militant attacks, including grenade attacks, firing on a vehicle carrying poll material, besides stone pelting. A PDP worker was shot at and critically wounded by unidentified gunmen last evening in Anantnag.
Even though there are 18 candidates seeking mandate from the constituency, the main contest is expected to be between Ms Mehbooba, state Congress president G A Mir and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi. CPI(M), which has not fielded any candidate, is supporting NC nominee from Anantnag constituency.
Considered as stronghold of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following its win in 11 out of 16 Assembly segments in 2014, the constituency has witnessed major change after the party formed coalition government with the BJP in the state.
Though all political parties, including National Conference (NC), PDP, BJP and Congress organised poll meetings under very heavy security cover, majority people remained indifferent to election process.
Due to security reasons, bypoll could not be held in the constituency after the seat fell vacant when Ms Mehbooba resigned to become the chief minister of the state following demise of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 2016. However, bypoll in Srinagar constituency was held in 2016 after PDP MP Tariq Hameed Karra resigned in protest against party’s coalition with BJP.
Later, Dr Farooq Abdullah of NC was elected. But, the bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat was marred by violent clashes between security forces and protestors that left eight civilians dead.
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference, which does not have much of a presence in south Kashmir, has fielded Chaudhry Zaffar Ali as its candidate.
The BJP, which had managed to garner only 1.26 per cent of the votes polled in Lok Sabha constituency during 2014 general election, has fielded Sofi Yousuf, a MLC this time. Besides candidates from other smaller parties, there are the independent candidates in fray for the constituency.
The campaigning was not as vigorous in south Kashmir as it was in Srinagar and Baramulla parliamentary constituencies as some attacks were carried out by militants on political workers in the last over a fortnight.
Instead of big rallies as witnessed in central and north Kashmir, political parties are conducting smaller gathering with adequate arrangements of security. Meanwhile, the BJP has also been able to hold meetings of party workers in the constituency, mostly indoors.
After questions were being asked why no national BJP leader address poll meeting in favour of party candidates, National Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain addressed a public meeting in Anantnag.
Interestingly, the development issue has taken a back seat as leaders are trying to woo the voters raising the issues of threat to Article 370 and 35 A, ban on civilian traffic twice in a week on Srinagar-Jammu national highway and National Investigation Agency (NIA) raids, besides Public Safety Act (PSA).
The NC, PDP and PC are blaming each other for the prevailing situation in the valley besides erosion of special status of the state. Three former chief ministers — Dr Farooq Abdullah, his son and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti president PDP — staged ‘dharna’ on the highway against ban to draw the attention of voters.
An official spokesperson on Saturday said that district Anantnag has six Assembly segments– Anantnag, Doru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam.
The district has 5,29,256 electors, including 2,57,540 females, 2102 service electors (2102 male and 11 female) and 11 transgender voters. For smooth polling the ECI has setup 714 polling stations in the district,? he said.
He said Kokernag Assembly segment has the highest number of 93,694 voters, including 44,948 females, while Doru has the lowest 78,653 electors, including 37,889 females.
Assembly segment Bijbehara has 93,289 voters, including 46,222 females, Shangus 88374 voters (43,010 females), Pahalgam 86,614 (42,498 females) and Anantnag 86,530 (42,973 females), he said.
He said the highest 46,222 female voters are in the Assembly segment of Bijbehara.
Among the assembly segments of Anantnag district, Shangus has a total of 1,031 service electors which is highest in the district, he added.
(AGENCIES)
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