Friday, Apr 26, 2024 | Last Update : 12:54 PM IST
Farooq Abdullah way ahead of his rivals
In the by-election for the seat held in April 2017, a voter turnout of 7.13 percent was recorded which was the lowest in thirty years.
Srinagar: Srinagar is one of the Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir which has witnessed extremely low voter turnouts in all elections held since 1996.
In the by-election for the seat held in April 2017, a voter turnout of 7.13 percent was recorded which was the lowest in thirty years. The State’s three-time chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah had won the election after securing 48,555 votes (54.2 percent) against his nearest rival and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nominee Nazir Ahmad Khan who polled 37,779 votes (43.02 percent).
The by-election had been necessitated by the resignation of Tariq Hameed Karra after his resignation from the PDP. In the 2014 general elections, he had defeated Mr. Abdullah by securing 157,923 votes as against 115,643 polled by the latter.
The authorities expect the voter turnout will be fairly better this time. Some local watchers endorse the view, citing absence of a serious effort by separatists to keep people away from elections. Srinagar spread over 15 Assembly segments will go to the polls in the second phase of the elections on Thursday.
Mr. Abdullah is re-seeking election from his home constituency. He is pitted against as many as eleven other candidates including BJP’s Sheikh Khalid Jehangir, PDP’s Aga Syed Mohsin and J&K People’s Conference (PC)’s Irfan Raza Ansari, J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP)’s Abdul Rashid Ganie, Janata Dal United’s Showkat Hussain Khan, Shiv Sena’s Abdul Khaliq Bhat, Rashtriya Jankranti Party’s Nazir Ahmad Lone, Manavadikar National Party’s Nazir Ahmad Sofi and independents Bilal Sultan, Sajjad Ahmad Dar and Abdul Rashid Banday.
However by all indications, the NC president is way ahead of all other key candidates in the fray. In fact, he faces only political greenhorns in this contest. Srinagar has a sizeable Shia vote (Shia voters of the Valley have routinely ignored the election boycott calls of separatists in the past) and both the PDP and PC are banking on it for their candidates belong to this sect of Muslims. But Mr. Mohsin and Mr. Ansari who belong to two influential Shia religious families of the Valley are likely to divide each other’s vote share, making sailing easier for Mr. Abdullah, say the local watchers.
Protection of J&K’s special status guaranteed by Articles 370 and 35A, seeking an end to Modi government for its ‘tacit promotion’ of sectarian politicsand an end to human rights violations in the State and harassment of Kashmiris by government agencies and resumption of peace talks with Pakistan have been some of the issues which dominated the election campaign in Srinagar.
