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| With fragmented electorate, Baramulla Lok Sabha seat all set to witness tough fight between NC, PDP | | Uri, Gurez, Karnah constituencies hold key to final result | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, May 5: After South and Central Kashmir the focus has now shifted towards North Kashmir as the election for Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha seat is going to be held on May 7. The administration has made elaborate arrangements for a free and fair poll.
Although, there are 15 candidates in fray for this seat but the real fight is between National Conference-Congress coalition candidate, Sharief-ud-din Shariq and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh. At the same time contenders like Engineer Abdul Rashid of Awami Itihaad Party and Salam-ud-din Bajad of People’s Conference too are expected to put up a decent show.
The Baramulla-Kupwara Parliamentary seat is spread over three districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora in North Kashmir. It consists of 15 Assembly segments of Baramulla, Sopore, Pattan, Gulmarg, Sangrama, Uri, Rafiabad, Kupwara, Handwara, Lolab, Langate, Karnah, Bandipora, Sonawari and Gurez.
Going by the situation that emanated after the polling in both South and Central Kashmir it is presumed that polling percentage may be low in main towns. However, at the same time it can be expected that people in certain Assembly segments would come out and exercise their right to franchise.
Poll percentage may be low in towns like Baramulla, Sopore, Pattan, Bandipora and Kupwara. But at places like Uri, Gurez and Karnah one cannot rule out heavy polling with people coming out in healthy numbers to cast their votes. As such the contenders for this Parliamentary would largely bank upon the votes that are going to be polled in these three Assembly segments.
As far as strength of parties in the 15 Assembly segments is concerned there is neck to neck race between National Conference and People’s Democratic Party. National Conference has its legislators from Sopore, Rafiabad, Kupwara, Handwara, Karnah, Sonawari and Gurez.
On the other hand Assembly segments like Baramulla, Pattan, Sangrama, Lolab and Bandipora are represented by PDP legislators. Congress has one legislator with Taj Mohi-ud-Din being the MLA of Uri constituency. Legislators Ghulam Hassan Mir and Engineer Abdul Rashid represent Gulmarg and Langate constituencies respectively.
More than the voting percentage the district administration is more worried over the law & order situation since some of the constituencies are volatile and vulnerable to attacks as well. Constituencies like Sopore and Pattan are too sensitive that one cannot rule out any untoward incident related to the polling process.
At the same time the polling booths located in the Old Baramulla town are also vulnerable to attacks from people who are pursuing anti-election campaign. There are certain pockets in the three districts where the separatist elements have some say and that is likely to impact the overall voting percentage in this Parliamentary constituency.
The anti-election campaign being carried out by separatist elements has been successful so far as about two thirds of the total electorate boycotted polls in the South and Central Kashmir Lok Sabha seats. Since people seem to be tired with the ruling coalition it can be presumed that they might either boycott the elections or vote for the candidates belonging to other parties or independents. |
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