Jehangir Ali 
Srinagar: Srinagar continued to follow the path of boycott politics in the Kashmir Valley with over 70% of voters staying away from the polls despite a massive infrastructure upgrade that has placed the summer capital at the heart of the Union government’s rhetoric of “change” in post-Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir.
A vast majority in the capital city, the epicentre of the political turmoil in Kashmir, stayed away from the polling stations on Wednesday (September 25), even though the average voter turnout of 29.27% in Srinagar district was marginally better than the 26% turnout in 2024 Lok Sabha polls and 27.86% recorded in the 2014 assembly polls.
‘Culture’
Professor Noor A Baba, a former Dean of Social Science at the University of Kashmir, said that the urban centres across the world voted relatively in fewer numbers as compared with the rural areas. He, however, noted that the historical Sher-Bakra feud between the National Conference (NC) and Awami Action Committee (AAC) led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was also partly responsible for the city’s low voter turnout.
| What is the sher-bakra feud?
The sher or ‘lion’ tag used to be flaunted by supporters of National Conference, who drew inspiration from Sheikh Abdullah, the party founder’s nickname. The supporters of Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah, who was one of the founders of Muslim Conference which was later renamed by Sheikh as ‘National Conference’, were known as bakras, or goats, because Shah sported a beard. The dispute is rooted in Kashmir’s turmoil-laden history when Sheikh Abdullah in 1946 launched the Quit Kashmir movement against the government and Yusuf Shah reportedly supported the government led by Dogra king Maharaja Hari Singh. After the accord between Farooq Abdullah and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s father, Molvi Mohammad Farooq, nephew of Yusuf Shah, the two sides have succeeded to bury their historic antagonism with some success. |
“The culture of boycotting polls is rooted in Srinagar’s psycho-social atmosphere with the Sher-Bakra feud at its epicentre. Mirwaiz’s family has a huge following in the city but this time too it appears that only the committed NC voters cast their ballot while the AAC cadre had no strong incentive to participate in the election,” said Baba.
Baba also argued that the majority of voters spread across eight constituencies of the Srinagar district were not inspired by the candidates in the polling fray. He said that the People Democratic Party had made some inroads in the city in its initial years but its support base has come down because of the lack of leadership in Srinagar.
“Srinagar has not changed so much as indicated in the Lok Sabha polls and now this assembly election. NC is the only party which is possibly able to bring out their voters because of their historical commitment. Srinagarites have withdrawn from the mainstream because of the situation that they have gone through,” said Baba, a native of downtown Srinagar.
Also read: Polling Day in Srinagar, in Photos
‘Boycott’
The second phase of the ongoing assembly election, which was held in six districts of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded 56.05% voter turnout, down from 61% polling recorded in the first phase of the election which was held on September 18.
In Srinagar district, the Habba Kadal constituency, once a stronghold of Kashmiri Pandits, was at the bottom of constituencies marred by low polling with only 15.8% voters turning up at the polling stations followed by Khanyar which recorded 24% turnout and Chanapora with 26.95%.
Naseer Ahmad, a resident of uptown Srinagar, blamed the low voter turnout on the alleged failure of political parties in reaching out to the residents and also on the absence of non-NC leaders in the city’s mainstream politics. He, however, said that the history of low polling in Srinagar may have encouraged political parties to stay away from “boycott constituencies”.
“The traditional political parties have failed to produce able candidates in Srinagar who could attract voters to polling stations. In rural areas, we see good competitive politics between different outfits at work but in Srinagar it is only the NC leaders who are visible on the ground. Some new faces were in the fray but Srinagar residents don’t see them as alternatives because of their dubious political credentials,” he said.
‘Propaganda’
The voter turnout in the three districts of Kashmir Valley which went to polls on Thursday was also down from 57 in 2014 assembly elections to 48.27%. Former J&K chief minister and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah on Thursday sought to blame the Bhartiya Janta Party-led union government’s “propaganda” for the dip in turnout.
“To some extent, the Centre is also responsible,” Abdullah told reporters, “They tried to present the high voter turnout (in the first phase) as proof that people were happy with the reading down of Article 370. Then foreign diplomats were also taken around the city. These developments triggered a reaction of people in Srinagar because they didn’t want to be used like this”.
The NC vice-president’s views were echoed by a prominent Srinagar-based academic, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak with the media. The academic added that the low turnout was a reflection of the anger against the BJP-led Centre and its “humiliation” of Jammu and Kashmir with the Article 370 move.
“People in Srinagar continue to blame mainstream politics for the problems in Kashmir. I see some veterans in civil society express themselves in a critical way on the kind of situation we have gone through. They see post 2019 developments as a humiliation of Kashmir. Only a minuscule population in Srinagar believes that we are going in a positive direction,” he said.
‘Not surprising’
However, Rekha Chowdhary, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Jammu, said that the low voter turnout in Srinagar was in line with the trends in previous assembly elections. She said that the intensity of electoral battles this year as well as aggressive campaigns by political parties and independent candidates should have translated into a higher voter turnout.
The eight contingencies of Srinagar district recorded 19.24% voter turnout in 1996 assembly election, which was the first democratic exercise to be held in Jammu and Kashmir after the eruption of armed insurgency in the early 1990s.
In 2002 assembly polls, only 5.06% in Srinagar district exercised their franchise followed by 21.67% in the 2008 election which went up to 27.86% in the 2014 election.
“Srinagar has been showing a trend of quite low voter turnout and one could actually feel the impact of the boycott politics in every election in the city,” Chowdhary said.
She added: “Why did the intensity of electoral mobilisation not get translated into higher voter turnout and what would be its impact on the electoral outcome, these are important questions that would be answered only with the election result.”