New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir has recorded larger polling crowds in the past, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) data, debunking claims that the high voter turnout in the ongoing Lok Sabha election is a “validation” of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government’s decision to read down Article 370.
As the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election on May 13 saw the first major electoral exercise in the Kashmir valley after Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union home minister Amit Shah termed the voter turnout in the Srinagar constituency, which was under 38%, as a “validation” of the Centre’s decision to read down Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
However, the ECI data reveals that the Srinagar constituency recorded its highest voter turnout of 73.51% in the 1984 Lok Sabha election in which Abdul Rashid Kabuli of the National Conference polled 367,249 votes or 81.08% of the total number of polled votes, while his nearest rival, Muzaffar Ahmad Shah, an independent candidate, got 80,972 or 17.88% votes.
“The ruling party [BJP] may try to paint the high voter turnout in the ongoing polls with political colours, but the high participation of voters in previous elections is a clear proof that the people of Kashmir have always believed in democratic processes, Article 370 notwithstanding,” said a Srinagar-based political analyst, who didn’t want to be named.
The overall voting turnout in the 1984 general elections in Jammu and Kashmir was 66.41%. The election took place five years ahead of the assembly polls that were rigged in the valley, paving the way for the eruption of armed insurgency which has roiled the region for more than three decades.
The Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency, which recorded 59% voter turnout in the ongoing Lok Sabha election on Monday, May 20, saw its lowest voter turnout in the Kashmir Valley during the 1984 general election, with 61.09% of electors exercising their franchise.
The seat was won by the Congress leader Saif-ud-Din Soz, who was then with the National Conference.
The ECI data also shows that the Anantnag constituency, which will go to polls on May 25, recorded a mammoth 70.08% voter turnout in the 1984 elections.
The seat was won by Akbar Jahan Begum, wife of the National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who bagged 58.5% of the total polled votes, while Peer Hussain-ud-Din, her rival from the Congress, came second with 158,963 or 38.6% votes.
In contrast, Udhampur constituency in Jammu region recorded a mere 55.1% voter turnout, while the turnout was relatively higher at 71% in the Jammu constituency and 68.29% in Ladakh in the 1984 general election.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Modi, while addressing a rally in Jharkhand, said that the under-38% voter turnout in Srinagar constituency during the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election was “a vote of confidence in elections and marks an endorsement of the Indian Constitution.”
Speaking with The Hindu, the home minister also said that there was “no greater testament to the rightness of the decision of the removal of Article 370 than the polling percentages going up (in Srinagar constituency) from 14% in the past (in 2019 when the BJP was in power) to 37%”.
However, the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir, which was downgraded into a Union territory in 2019, has been on the higher side earlier also, which suggests that there was no link between the high participation of people in the ongoing Lok Sabha election to the reading down of Article 370.
After the insurgency broke out in the 1990s, the ECI data also suggests that the Lok Sabha elections have seen low participation of voters of Jammu and Kashmir, given the seeds of distrust sown in the minds of voters following the rigging of 1987 assembly elections.
For example, J&K recorded 58.12% voter turnout in the fifth Lok Sabha election in 1971 when Sheikh Abdullah, who had become an icon of Kashmiri resistance against New Delhi’s rule, was pushed out of the political arena and the Congress walked away with five seats while one seat was won by an independent candidate.
After Sheikh struck an accord with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 57.85% turnout in the sixth Lok Sabha election in 1977. The Congress won Anantnag, Ladakh, and Udhampur seats in the election, followed by the National Conference with Srinagar and Baramulla seats, while an independent candidate was elected from the Jammu constituency.
In the 1967 general election for the fourth Lok Sabha, when Sheikh Abdullah was in jail, Jammu and Kashmir recorded relatively high voter turnout of 53.42%, following which the Congress was declared to have won five seats, while the National Conference had to remain content with the Srinagar seat only.
The voter turnout in the 1980 general election was 48.05%, 25.68% in 1989, 48.96% in 1996, 44.21% in 1998, 32.34% in 1999, 35.20% in 2004, 39.7% in 2009, and 49.72% in 2014.
The Lok Sabha election could not be held in 1991 as violence raged in Jammu and Kashmir following the eruption of insurgency.
