Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 29: The Srinagar parliamentary constituency has 12 lakh voters and of them, according to election commission's electoral rolls, nearly 36,000 are Kashmiri Pandit migrants. When the constituency goes to polls on April 30, only 14 per cent of these Pandits will be eligible to vote at 13 polling stations set up for them in Jammu city and its outskirts.
The wide gap between the number of voters and those eligible has become a bone of contention between Kashmiri Pandits and Election Commission officials, with the former alleging a conspiracy against the minority community and holding demonstrations. On Monday, they held a demonstration outside the office of the chief electoral officer here and burnt copies of the 'M' (migrant) form which has been made mandatory by the EC to make them eligible to cast vote. Union Minister for New and Renewable energy Farooq Abdullah is seeking re-election from here as the NC-Congress alliance candidate. He is among a dozen candidates in the fray, his main challenge coming from the PDP's Tariq Hameed Qarra. According to assistant electoral officer (migrants) Sachan Dev Singh, of the 36,015 Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters, only 5,098 will be eligible to vote.
He added that the list of eligible voters has been prepared on the basis of the M-form filled up by Kashmiri Pandits. To enable them to vote in their respective constituencies in the valley without personally going there, the EC had asked them to fill up the form, which gives them a choice of polling stations among several listed, he said. If anyone wishes to use the postal ballot facility, he or she can fill in and send application form 12 C to the ARO, Jammu, up to 10 days before the poll. From among the 36,015 Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters, the EC has received only 1,888 migrant forms, of which 209 were rejected. Of the 1,679 forms that have been accepted, 5,098 voters are eligible to vote for Srinagar. For postal ballot, the EC have received application forms from only eight people, he added. |
