Neck to neck contest between Mehboob, Mehbooba

Excelsior Correspondent

Anantnag, Apr 22: As the rigorous election campaign by the National Conference-Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders ends here in the Anantnag Parliamentary constituency, it is neck to neck contest between the sitting Member Parliament (MP) and NC candidate, Mehboob Baig and president of main Opposition party in the State, Mehbooba Mufti.
The National Conference and Congress made best of their efforts to retain the seat that they won in 2009 by a narrow margin of 5,224 votes. Baig got 1,48,317 votes while his rival Hussain got 1,43,093 votes.
South Kashmir that goes to polls on April 24, is considered as bastion of the PDP where they have 12 MLAs in the State Assembly while Congress has 2 and NC and CPI (M) have one each. However, last time NC-Congress coalition managed to win the Parliamentary seat from here.
Since Sakina Itoo is the lone candidate from South Kashmir for NC in the Assembly, the party candidate Baig will bank upon Congress vote bank in Dooru and Kokernag constituencies. The two Congress candidates, G A Mir and Peerzada Sayeed, are both Ministers.
The Anantnag constituency is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian and has 12.72 lakh voters, including 6, 01, 688 female voters. In 2009 Parliament elections, the number of voters in the constituency were 11, 65, 951.
The 16 Assembly segments of the constituency are: Pulwama, Tral, Pampore and Rajpora in Pulwama district; Wachi and Shopian in Shopian district; Noorabad, Kulgam, Homeshalibugh and Devsar in Kulgam district while Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag , Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam in Anantnag district.
There are 1615 polling stations in the constituency with almost all of them hypersensitive. Pulwama district comprises 408 polling stations, Shopian 196, Kulgam 389 and Anantnag the highest with 622.
The militant presence in areas like Tral, Awantipora, Pulwama, Shopian and Keller areas may impact the voter turnout in these areas. The killing of Panchayat members in Tral and Pulwama has led to fear psychosis in Tral, Awantipora and Pulwama.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here