Boniyar (Kashmir): Gulam Ahmed runs a bakery shop in Srinagar for past over a decade but continues to be registered as a voter at Bijhama, a sleepy village nestled in scenic hills through which historic Jhelum Valley Road, now known as Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, passes. On Tuesday, he along with six fellow residents returned to their native place to vote, ignoring the calls for boycott.
Ahmed said that the separatists, must realise “We can’t afford to stay away from the ballot” and “should, once for all, delink elections from the demand for azadi”. Many locals while endorsing him said that it were people from mainstream political parties who after being elected as MLAs and MPs alone can address the issues of ‘paani, bijli and sadak’. “If we boycott elections we lose the right to go to them with our problems and, in fact, they refuse to listen to us,” said Khadija Begum, an elderly woman resident.
However, three locals interviewed by Deccan Chronicle at a polling booth in nearby Sheeri area had had three different reasons to vote. While Nazir Ahmed Khatana, a cabdriver, did it to effect 'change' as has been a poll plank of the BJP, his neighbour Mushtaq Gani Mir who works at a nearby power project claimed he like many others decided to vent their ‘anger’ through ballot. Though he refused to divulge who he voted for but said “It should not be any difficult for you to judge who we are angry with.” Another Sheeri resident, Muhammad Afzal, a smalltime trader, said he voted after he realized obeying the boycott diktat and staying away from the ballot in the past have only helped the ‘vested interests’ and “I didn’t want to give them another chance.”
Sheeri and Boniyar are not far from Mohura where suspected Islamic militants struck in a big way against an Army base last week, killing eight soldiers and three policemen. The bloody incident with a series of other violent acts that came around not only served as a grim reminder of the fact that militancy has been defeated partially only but was also seen by no less a person than Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, himself as a deliberate attempt to derail democracy by scaring people away from the ballot.
On Tuesday, people undeterred by these incidents in large numbers came out to vote in most of the 16 segments of the Valley. Voting in the third of the five phased elections was held in the districts of Baramulla, Budgam and Pulwama. While polling began on a dull note in the morning as the Valley is reeling under biting cold, it picked up later during the day and at many places enthusiasm among voters was such that they could be seen shoving one another to make way into polling booths, forcing the security personnel guarding the polling booths, to act tough.
However, in old Baramulla town located on the banks of Jhelum at the highest point of the river, the separatists’ boycott call found many takers. Though the authorities had relocated several polling stations from the volatile localities to supposed safer places, in the afternoon angry crowds attacked a government building in which five polling booths had been set up with rocks and other missiles. The police and CRPF tried to control the situation by bursting teargas canisters in the middle of the mobs but in vain. Forced by circumstances, the poll staff ran away with EVMs at 3 PM, one hour before the closing of voting.
Palhalan area, which also falls in Baramulla district and where people have many horror stories to share with visitors as they have enormously suffered due to “brutalities” unleashed by security forces over the years, only few people voted. The area witnessed daylong clashes between stone-throwing youth and police in which a local girl Rubeena Hassan was seriously injured when hit by a teargas shell. A policeman was also injured in clashes, officials and witnesses said. Sopore town, a hotbed of insurgency, recorded lowest voter turnout at 30 percent. The polling booths at nearby Dooru, birthplace of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, also wore a deserted look. At Quil in Pulwama, irate youth attacked the houses of those who had cast their vote earlier during the day with rocks, reports said. Samboora, also in Pulwama, Nagam in Budgam and some other places also witnessed low voter turnout. A polling station at Rajpora (Pulwama) was attacked with a patrol bomb, the act was blamed by police on 'miscreants'.
In contrast to the scenes witnessed at these places, people in large numbers turned up to vote in Beerwah constituency of Budgam where Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, is a star contender and where voters were buoyed by his presence in the fray. Neighbouring Charar-e-Sharief recorded highest polling of 82.14 per cent.
Election Commission officials said that overall 58 percent voting was recorded in the third phase of elections covering 16 Assembly segments and where as many as 144 candidates are in fray. Baramulla district recorded overall voter turnout of 57 percent, Budgam 73 percent and Pulwama 42.45 percent turnout. The first two phases of the elections held on November 25 and December 2, over 70 percent polling was recorded.
