Bamdoora: The volatile south Kashmir region remained largely peaceful as it voted in the third phase of general elections in the Valley, giving anxious security forces some relief. But the same cannot be said for the Election Commission (EC) and the political parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), given the low voter turnout of 13.61 per cent.
Tuesday marked just the first phase of polling in Anantnag, where the EC has split voting into three days to tide over security concerns. While six assembly segments voted Tuesday, the others will cast their votes in the fourth and fifth phases of the Lok Sabha polls.
The turnout for the six assembly segments in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was 39.37 per cent, according to the Jammu & Kashmir chief electoral officer.
The PDP, which regards the region as its bastion, was hoping for a higher number of voters, especially in Bijbehara. Party chief Mehbooba Mufti won Anantnag in 2004 and in 2014. Now the constituency faces the likely spectre of a non-Mufti MP.
“What should we vote for? Mehbooba Mufti’s own village is not that far from here and yet she never visited this village,” said a villager from Bamdooro, located about 80 km from Srinagar.
The village was the epicentre of the 2016 unrest: It was here that Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with the forces, and the scars still hurt.
After Wani was killed in July 2016, angry locals from neighbouring areas had razed 11 houses in Bamdooro to the ground, accusing its residents of colluding with the forces to kill Wani. “We lost our homes. Our image of colluding with the forces stays to date,” said the villager.
Hotbed of homegrown militancy
The Election Commission of India, in an unprecedented move, decided to hold the election to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in south Kashmir, the hotbed of homegrown militancy, in three phases this year, with the hope of improving the voter turnout and making it easier for the security forces to manage the law and order situation.
It is because of security concerns and conditions deemed not conducive to voting that Anantnag has been without an MP since Mehbooba quit to assume the chief minister’s chair after the death of her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in 2o16.
Phase one
Six assembly segments of the Anantnag seat — Anantnag, Shangus, Dooru, Kokernag, Bijbehara and Pahalgam — voted Tuesday.
Though Shangus and Dooru are strongholds of the Congress party and Pahalgam of the National Conference, the PDP boasts of deep support, if waning, in the constituency.
Political observers in the Valley believed that a higher voter turnout in the six assembly segments, especially PDP strongholds Bijbehara and Anantnag, would mean the party’s dedicated voter base had come out to support Mehbooba, popularly known as Baaji in these areas.
But that seems to have not happened. Bijbehara recorded a mere 2.04 per cent turnout, followed by Anantnag with 3.47 per cent. The turnout for Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus and Pahalgam stood at 17.28 per cent, 19.52 per cent, 15.10 per cent and 20.37 per cent, respectively.
Also read: Video of PDP workers waving toy guns at rally puts focus on Kashmir’s mainstream politics
Political sphere
With the limited influence of the National Conference in the area, and a possible decrease in the PDP vote-share, the Congress might mount a surprise in Anantnag.
However, it will be most interesting to see how the Bharatiya Janata Party fares in this seat, with a campaign shorn of the aggressive posturing the party has exhibited elsewhere.
Sofi Yosuf, the BJP candidate for south Kashmir, told ThePrint that he wanted to put an end to civilian killings, adding that the time was not ripe to tinker with Article 35A, which gives the state power to define its permanent residents.
Abrogating Article 35A and Article 370, which grants Jammu & Kashmir autonomy, is among the BJP’s manifesto promises.
Sofi, like his counterparts from regional parties, knows his audience, as does G.A. Mir, the Congress candidate.
State Congress chief Mir has promised a lower Army presence in Kashmir and blamed the PDP, which allied with the BJP to form the state government from 2016 to 2018, for allowing the latter’s “strong-arm policy to function in Kashmir”.
But it remains how the low turnout affects their performance.
PDP’s dimming sheen
In 2014, the PDP had managed to tap the anti-incumbency wave against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah of the NC to emerge as the single-biggest player in the assembly polls.
The party, however, has been widely criticised for its alliance with the BJP, a party opposed to the autonomy Kashmiris are known to hold sacred.
The killing of Wani exacerbated the PDP’s image crisis, with voters in south Kashmir telling ThePrint that the “injury” wrought by the crackdown on the ensuing unrest was yet to heal.
Operation All Out, under which more than 500 militants were killed, came with crackdowns, internet shutdowns and civilian deaths.
Inside the polling booth at Bamdooro village, only 35 of 1,669 voters had cast their ballot by 10 am.
Those who voted said they wanted a parliamentarian who could take their concerns about Delhi to Delhi.
In Batkot area, near Pahalgam, voters Ijaz Ahmed and Mohammad Yosuf reiterated Abdullah’s recent suggestion that the posts of J&K prime minister and president be brought back.
“We stand by the statements made by him (Abdullah),” said Ijaz. Yosuf, a sarpanch in the village, added, “We want to send our representative to the Indian a parliament so he can talk of resolving the Kashmir issue,” said Yosuf.
A third voter, a government employee named Showkat Ahmed, said he was frustrated with the current situation. “Recently, a magistrate was beaten [by security personnel]. I am voting to end this humiliation,” he added.
Speaking about the low voter turnout, J&K chief electoral officer Shailendra Kumar betrayed a sense of helplessness.
“We would like if the people come out to vote but we can’t force them to do so,” he said.
Also read: This Kashmir district used to defy calls for poll boycott, but now it couldn’t care less