NEW DELHI: The district development council (DDC) polls in Jammu & Kashmir, which concluded on Saturday, saw higher polling in the traditional low-turnout areas such as Srinagar, Awantipora, Shopian and Anantnag, as compared to the parliamentary elections last year and even panchayat polls of 2018.
This, a senior J&K government functionary pointed out, was despite these being the first polls to be held after abrogation of Article 370 and their timing in harsh winter.
While Jammu region predictably saw brisk polling during all 8 phases of DDC poll to clock an overall 68.43% turnout, Kashmir division too saw voters lining up at the polling station in snow-covered, difficult areas and contributing to the overall 34.41% turnout.
The surprise package in Kashmir were conventionally low-polling areas such as Srinagar, where 35.3% votes were polled, a big jump over 7.9% turnout in 2019 Lok Sabha poll and 14.50% in 2018 panchayat polls. Awantipora, which recorded 0.4% polling in panchayat polls of 2018 and 3% in 2019 parliamentary poll, saw 9.9% polling in DDC polls. Anantnag too saw 24.9% polling this time, a huge improvement over 9.3% polling in 2018 and 13.8% in last year’s general election.
Even terror hotbeds like
Pulwama and Shopian recorded 7.6% and 15.4% turnout respectively, which though low was way higher than 1.2% and 3.4% turnout recorded in 2019 Lok Sabha poll. Sopore witnessed 23.8% turnout, higher than the 7.6% Lok Sabha poll turnout but slightly lower than 26% polling seen during 2018 panchayat polls.
“The significant increase in turnouts as compared to last year’s Lok Sabha poll and 2018 panchayat polls is significant for two reasons. Firstly, the DDC polls were the first electoral exercise to be held after the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K on August 5last year. Secondly, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) (an amalgam of multiple parties including PDP and NC, that fielded candidates in the DDC polls) leaders had initially claimed that no one would participate in these polls. The higher percentages counter the false narrative of PAGD and confirm Kashmiri people’s aspirations for a stronger grassroot democracy,” said a state functionary.
Despite the terror threat in Kashmir, the DDC polls passed off relatively peacefully barring a few grenade strikes on the security forces and an attack on Apni Party candidate in South Kashmir. A personal security officer of an ex-PDP leader was also killed in Srinagar. Interestingly, a major terror plot of Jaish e Mohammad to carry out strikes coinciding with DDC polls was purportedly foiled after four terrorists who had freshly infiltrated from Pakistan were neutralized in Nagrota last month.