Beerwah, Budgam (Kashmir): Sitting under the shade of poplar trees to protect herself from the harsh afternoon sun, Khadija Bano, 63, is waiting for her son to come out of the polling station before proceeding to her home.
“I have four sons and a daughter, but none of them has a full-time job. My daughter is an arts graduate, but even that has not sufficed to land her a job. I cast my vote so that the kids of poor families like us also get opportunities to work and earn,” said Bano, a housewife.
The frail-looking Bano was one of 295 voters out of 843 who exercised their franchise at the Nagam-B polling station of the Chrari-i-Sharief constituency in central Kashmir’s Budgam district at 10:30 am as the second phase of the ongoing assembly election in J&K started on Wednesday (September 25) amid tight security arrangements.
Rising unemployment, lack of democratic representation and crippling inflation in J&K were among the predominant concerns for voters who exercised their franchise across 15 assembly segments in the Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts of the Kashmir valley.
According to J&K’s chief electoral officer, a 54% voter turnout was recorded at 5 pm, down from the 59% recorded in the first phase of the three-phase assembly election.
Despite it being peak harvest season, a large number of voters exercised their franchise in Budgam district, where the election was held in five assembly seats. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
The Khansaheb constituency in Kashmir’s Budgam led with a 67.7% turnout, while the newly created Shri Mata Vaishno Devi constituency led in the Jammu division, where election was held in 11 assembly segments.
The Wire spoke with dozens of voters in the Srinagar and Budgam districts, a few of whom also referred to the constitutional changes brought to J&K in 2019, its Union territory status and the imprisonment of Kashmiri youngsters in jails outside the territory as the triggers for their votes.
“Voting is our right and wasting it is a sin,” said Shameema Bano, 55, a housewife who cast her vote in the Beerwah town of central Kashmir.
“We spend a fortune in educating our children, but drugs are consuming them nowadays. Many Kashmiris are languishing in jail. It is only the poor who are suffering. We want this system to change.”
The Beerwah constituency, which elected former J&K chief minister and National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah in the 2014 assembly election, is witnessing a tight contest between his party and the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) led by Engineer Rashid.
At 1 pm, 554 and 515 out of 877 and 1,061 votes were respectively cast at two polling stations that were set up in a government-run school in Beerwah town.
According to political analysts, the AIP candidate, Nazir Ahmad Khan, who is the chairman of Budgam’s district development council, was hoping to capitalise on the sentimental wave triggered by Rashid during the recently concluded Lok Sabha election.
The AIP leader was handed a comfortable majority from this central Kashmir assembly segment, enabling him to defeat Abdullah in the Lok Sabha polls with a margin of more than two lakh votes.
Besides widespread public goodwill, Khan, who was earlier with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is also banking on the populist image of his father, Sarfaraz Ahmad Khan, a former minister of state in J&K, to win the constituency.
A polling agent argues with security personnel deployed at a polling station in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
However, Khan’s prospects could be dented by independent candidate Sarjan Barkati, whose daughter Sugra Barkati and 11-year-old son led a massive and emotional campaign for their incarcerated parents in the Beerwah constituency.
A religious cleric, Barkati attained fame at the peak of the 2016 civilian unrest when he rallied thousands to anti-India demonstrations that swept through Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
Barkati was arrested on terror funding charges last year.
“Khan has been changing parties too often, which has dented his public image,” said Mohammad Subhan Baba, a farmer in the Pethkoot village of Beerwah. “I used to vote for him earlier, but this time I have cast my vote for Barkati.”
The constituency recorded a 62.5% voter turnout.
After losing to Rashid in the parliamentary polls, Abdullah, who has fallen short of securing a formidable voter base for himself despite being in Kashmiri politics for more than two decades, has hopped into the electoral arena from the adjoining Budgam, a Shia-dominated constituency where he is locked in an interesting battle with the PDP’s Muntazir Mehdi.
In the 2014 assembly polls, Abdullah – who is also fighting this election from the Ganderbal constituency, his family’s traditional seat – lost to the then-PDP leader Mohammad Ashraf Mir from the Sonawar assembly constituency. He won the 2014 election from Beerwah with a thin margin of about 1,000 votes.
“After winning the election, Omar forgot Beerwah. In the past ten years, we didn’t see any development. Even our roads are full of potholes. I think change was necessary, which is why I voted for PDP candidate Ghulam Ahmad Khan. He is a local and understands our issues,” said Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a shopkeeper who cast his vote in the Gundipora village of Beerwah constituency.
Women voters queue up to exercise their right to vote at a polling station in the Nagam village of the Chrari Sharief constituency. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
In the hotly contested Chrari Sharief constituency, which was won by the PDP in the 2014 assembly polls, senior NC leader and former J&K finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather, who is perhaps fighting his last election, is also facing a close contest with the PDP’s Ghulam Nabi Lone. The constituency recorded a 66% turnout.
Four other candidates who hail from the main town are expected to divide the urban vote between themselves, while the fate of the assembly segment is likely to be decided by the rural vote.
“It is after a long time that despite ailing health, Rather has personally campaigned in the constituency. He is desperate for a win at the fag end of his political career,” said Javed Ahmad, a teacher.
Even though central Kashmir’s seven constituencies recorded a healthy turnout of 59.79% on Wednesday, voters in the capital Srinagar’s eight constituencies largely stayed away from the polling booths, with the district recording an overall 27.44% turnout.
According to political observers, a low voter turnout, which has been linked to weariness among the city’s voters towards mainstream politics, has historically favoured the NC, as its cadre in Srinagar was known to have exercised its franchise even at the peak of the turbulence in Kashmir.
J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra is in the fray from the Shalteng assembly constituency of Srinagar as the INDIA bloc’s candidate.
“In recent years, unemployment, electricity tariff and drug abuse have grown in Srinagar. We want our own government which will not only address these issues but also help us in getting our statehood back. This is why I have come out to vote. I am hopeful that the situation will get better after the election,” said Abdul Majid Wani, a resident of Srinagar’s Khanyar locality.
The third phase of the election is scheduled to be held on October 2 and the results of the election will be out by October 8.
