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| Salute voters who shed fears in Kashmir poll | | | Now that the fourth phase of polling in 18 constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir has ended the most significant aspect of the ongoing election has been that people have shed fears.Despite attempts by militants to enforce separatists call for poll boycott by carrying out gun and grenade attacks, including killing of a couple of sarpanches voters seem to have become bold enough to defy the poll boycott call and remain unnerved by militant activities.The state registered between 70 and 80 polling percentage in first two phases of polling and in the third the percentage was about 59 per cent.In the same way voters in eight Assembly segments in Srinagar district did show sloth and disinterest in polling with the result these eight constituencies witnessed over 27 per cent voting. Had these eight seats recorded about 40 to 50 per cent polling the overall pollling percentage would have touched 65. In the six constituencies in Anantnag and Shopian district the polling percentage touched over 59 per cent. On an average the polling percentage in most of the constituencies in Srinagar district has ranged between 20 and 25. Yes,one may say that separatists did not initiate steps for enforcing their call for poll boycott and reports indicate that even after giving a call to people to stay away from the poll process these separatists stayed indoors to ensure that high polling percentage could deny the BJP the chance to win five to 10 seats from the Kashmir valley.And if not anybody else but senior separatist leader,Syed Ali Shah Geelani has stated that they had goaded people to come out in large numbers for casting their votes which could prevent the BJP from registering its presence in the valley.
Whether allowing people to vote freely was part of the plan to make voters belonging to Kashmiri Pandits as irrelevant.In the previous elections very poor voting percentage would give Pandit voters a pivotal role in shaping the future of the candidate for whom they had voted. There was also a feeling, it was though ill conceived, among the voters in the Kashmir valley that majority of votes from the Pandit community would be cast in favour of the BJP candidates. This apprehension was without any basis because in the past the Pandit community has remained divided as far as their choice of candidates was concerned. Whatever may have been the reason for voters in the Kashmir valley they deserve to be saluted by those who believe or swear by democracy.What was significant was voters keen interest in exercising their right of franchise in areas which have been treated as highly sensitive and in this category falls some of the constituencies in Shopian district.In fact out of 18 constituencies where polling was held on Sunday 16 were in the districts of Anantnag, Shopian and Srinagar.And out of these 16 constituencies over 10 constituencies had been witnessing sporadic incident of militancy related violence.
Yes,voters deserve appreciation for having braved chill and bullet threat while casting their votes and security forces too deserve praise for having provided foolproof security cover to the voters and to the polling stations.
Once people were satisfied that the security grid in and around the polling stations had been upgraded they showed no nervousness while walking to the polling booths.And it was because of upgraded security bandobast and proper arrangements organized by the Election Commission that unexpectedly polling percentage cross 66 in 67 constituencies where voting was completed in first four phases.Not a poor percentage in the context of adverse weather conditions and the plans of militants.Security forces deserve added appreciation because they were able to prevent militants from surfacing on the days of polling.It was the outcome of series of counter insurgency operations launched by the security forces.
One thing is definite.One of the main causes responsible for high polling percentage was voters desire to vote for change.They had thought that if they wanted to rid of non-performing political parties this was the time to defeat their candidates. |
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