Bandipora, Kashmir: At a time when the election fever had gripped Jammu and Kashmir, Tanveer Hussain was angry, especially with the political parties based in Kashmir Valley who ran an intense and door-to-door campaign to attract the voters.
“They had all the time for campaigns but none of them had time for even a single meeting on Article 370 and how we can get it back,” Hussain, who works in a popular fast-food chain, said outside a polling booth in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Despite a looming grudge, Hussain was among the first residents in Sonawari assembly constituency of Bandipora who cast his vote at Shadipora, a polling station during the third and final phase of the assembly election on Tuesday (October 1).
A group of voters waiting for turn to cast their ballot at a polling station in Shadipora village of Bandipora. Photo: Jehangir Ali
Sporting a neatly trimmed beard with a thin moustache, Hussain said that he was fed up with the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who he alleged had misgoverned Jammu and Kashmir since the eruption of armed insurgency in the early 1990s.
“I have voted for change. Only new faces and new ideas can bring a change in Kashmir,” he declared.
Across north Kashmir’s three districts of Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara where a resurgent NC is fighting a multi-fronted battle against the Peoples Conference led by Sajad Lone and Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party besides other small players, voters came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the final phase of election which recorded better turnout than the first two phases.
A banner in Asham village of Bandipora with the images of Awami Ittehad Party leader Engineer Rashid and his party’s candidate for Sonawari constituency, Yasir Reshi. Photo: Jehangir Ali
According to J&K’s chief electoral officer, the last phase of the election saw 65.48% turnout, up from 57.31% in the second phase and 61.38% in the first phase.
However, the overall voter turnout was 61.39, down from 65.23% recorded in the 2014 assembly election which had propelled the PDP-Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) coalition to power in J&K.
Outside a polling station in Bandipora’s Sumbal village, a group of youngsters watched a steady trickle of voters walking in and out of a polling station on Tuesday morning, seemingly without any interest in the election.
“Elections have no meaning now,” a youngster told The Wire, outside a polling station in Bandipora’s Sumbal town.
“J&K has been turned into a municipality after 2019. Even if a popular government comes to office, the reign of power will be in the hands of the lieutenant governor (LG),” he added.
After J&K was bifurcated and demoted into a Union Territory in 2019, it has been run by the LG who is selected by the Ministry of Home Affairs. A recent change in law by the Union government has virtually handed veto power to the LG on the decisions taken by the popular government.
“If our chief minister can’t even select his own officers, how will he address the issues of people?” said the youngster, a university student, who didn’t wish to be identified.
At some polling stations which The Wire visited on Tuesday, a common thread which connected the voters were the issues of the lack of employment opportunities in Kashmir post Article 370, rising inflation and the absence of democracy.
A woman is seen extending greetings to an elderly lady by kissing her hand outside a polling station in Shadipora village of Bandipora. Photo: Jehangir Ali
Many voters also spoke of the reading down of Article 370, the loss of J&K’s statehood and how the erstwhile state has been stripped of its “dignity” by the BJP-led Union government.
“Unemployment is at a record high and now this drug abuse is consuming our educated youngsters. But I am confident that once an elected government assumes office, the situation will change. We will get back our rights, god willing,” said Ghulam Rasool Khan, a retired government official who cast his ballot in Sonawari constituency.
For many families in Asham village of Bandipora, the election day seemed to be a time to socialise with each other. Many villagers, including women, could be seen hugging and greeting each other with great joy outside a polling station which was set up in a government-run school. Similar scenes were witnessed at other polling stations in this north Kashmir district.
“It’s okay if you lose,” housewife Aisha Bano, a NC supporter, quipped sarcastically to a female relative who had voted for a different candidate at the polling station in Asham of Sonawari constituency. “Winning or losing is part of the game. Don’t take it to heart.”
This north Kashmir assembly constituency recorded 65.56% voter turnout, which was a couple of notches higher than the overall turnout of 65.48% in the district in the final phase of the three-phase election.
A paramilitary trooper helping an old lady to climb the stairs to a polling station in Asham village of Bandipora. Photo: Jehangir Ali
Zareena Bano, 50, a housewife who also cast her vote at a polling booth in Asham village, said that her poor village was plagued by the absence of good roads and drinking water shortage. She said that her two illiterate sons were jobless, leaving her ailing husband to fend for their household expenses.
“In recent years, our household bills have shot through the roof. Leading a basic life is becoming impossible. But I am hopeful that our village will be developed and my sons will get work once the government is formed,” she said.
Polling was also held on Tuesday in four districts of Jammu division which are the stronghold of the BJP. However, political analysts believe that the saffron party could lose some ground in these districts which comprise the Hindu heartland of Jammu and Kashmir.
The results of the election are scheduled to be declared on October 8.
