BARAMULLA : Low polling was recorded during the first two hours in Baramulla Parliamentary constituency in north Kashmir, where tension gripped some areas following boycott call by separatists, fresh attacks on security personnel and stone pelting incidents.
Though some polling booths witnessed very few voters in the towns, there was also a good voter turnout in far-flung and remote villages.
An official spokesman said the frontier district of Kupwara witnessed 5 per cent voting till 0900 hrs followed by Baramulla 3.63 per cent and lowest 2.3 per cent. However, the authorities expect that the voters will come out in large number and exercise their franchise as the day progress. Unprecedented security arrangements have been made in the constituency, spread over frontier district of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, to generate confidence among the voters to exercise their democratic right in a peaceful atmosphere. Official sources said poll boycott in important towns of Anantnag and Srinagar constituencies will have definite impact in this constituency also, though only in major towns.
Polling in the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency began today amid high tension, boycott calls and late last night militant attack on security force personnel deployed on election duty.
Unprecedented security arrangements have been made in the constituency, spread over frontier district of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, to generate confidence among the voters to exercise their democratic right in a peaceful atmosphere. In the main town and tehsil headquarters the polling staff was seen waiting for the first voter. Official sources said poll boycott in important towns of Anantnag and Srinagar constituencies will have definite impact in this constituency also, though only in major towns. However, in the far-flung and remote areas, more so near the Line of Control (LoC), voters, particularly women, could be seen marching towards polling stations in their respective areas. Keeping in view the security of poll staff, polling timing in the constituency has been fixed from 0700 hrs to 1700 hrs, one hour less than polling hours across the country. This decision was taken after gunmen attacked a polling party in Shopian in which an official was killed and three others–a CRPF jawan, a police constable and driver of a bus– were injured.
The constituency will witness contest between the ruling National Conference (NC), opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Conference (PC) and Awami Itehand Party (AIP) though there are 11 other candidates in the fray. For security reasons, more than 400 preventive arrests had been made in main towns and tehsil headquarters during the past one week to ensure free and fair polling. With 15 candidates in the fray, the main contest will be between Sharief Uddin Shariq, seeking re-election from the seat on NC ticket, Peoples PDP Muzaffar Hussain Baig, PC Salamuddin Bajad and AIP Sheikh Abdul Rashid.
BJP’s Ghulam Mohammad Mir and Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah are seeking mandate on National Panthers Party (NPP) ticket though they have almost no presence in the constituency. Senior leaders from NC, PDP and PC joined the election campaigning in favour of their respective candidates, drawing big crowd. However, Congress leaders, including Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, also sought votes for NC candidate. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father Dr Farooq Abdullah, NC president, appealing to Congress supporters to vote for NC candidate, said that voting for their candidate means voting for AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister of the country.
They further alleged that vote for PDP candidate means helping BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is the enemy of people of the Kashmir valley and Article 370. The opposition PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, his daughter and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and other senior leaders are seeking votes to raise the issue of Kashmir in the parliament besides alleged corruption in the state government. However, PC leaders, including its chairman Sajad Gani Lone criticised both NC and PDP and describing them as the agents of Government of India.
BJP and NPP and other contesting parties also organised poll meetings in favour of their candidates, though the attendance was very low.
The authorities have set up 1,616 polling stations in the constituency for 10.51 lakh voters, of whom 5,45,219 are women. Out of these polling stations, 37 have been declared hyper-sensitive, sensitive and critical. Before 1967, candidates to Lok Sabha were nominated from Jammu and Kashmir. Syed Ahmad Aga of Congress was the first who got elected from this seat in 1967.
Aga shifted to National Conference led by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, then Prime Minister and was re-elected from the constituency.
However, after Indira-Sheikh Abdullah accord in 1975, the NC led by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah started participating in the Assembly and Parliament elections in the state. Abdul Ahad was the first NC leader who got elected from this seat in 1977, Mubarak Shah (NC) 1980, Prof Saifuddin Soz (NC), present PCC president, 1984 and 1989. Congress nominee Ghulam Rasool Kar won from the seat in 1996 when NC did not participate in the polls as almost all leaders of NC were residing outside the valley due to militancy. Prof Saifuddin Soz later wrested the seat from Congress after contesting on NC ticket in 1998.
However, Prof Soz was expelled from the NC after he voted against the BJP government against the party directions. Later Abdul Rashid Shaheen (NC) represented the seat twice in 1999 and 2004 and Sharief Uddin Shariq winning the seat in 2009. Yesterday, an Assistant Commandant Manoj Kumar, Jawan K Sujan, solider of Rashitriya Rifles (RR) Suresh Kumar were injured when militants attacked them at apple township of Sopore when poll officials were going towards their respective polling stations.
However, poll officials were safe, sources said. Earlier, during the day a bomb went off in a school in Sopore area while protesters attacked police and para-military forces at several places forcing the authorities to delay the dispatch of the poll staff to these troubled areas. (AGENCIES)
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