{"id":7869,"date":"2024-05-15T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T13:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/?p=7869"},"modified":"2024-05-15T13:54:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T13:54:52","slug":"peaceful-srinagar-polls-push-turnout-to-36-in-first-parliament-election-after-2019-the-hindu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/?p=7869","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Peaceful\u2019 Srinagar polls push turnout to 36% in first Parliament election after 2019 – The Hindu"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Updated – May 13, 2024 11:33 pm IST<\/span>
Published – May 13, 2024 11:53 am IST – SRINAGAR<\/span>
Voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting in general election, in Ganderbal district, Central Kashmir on May 13, 2024. | Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD
Polling in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, the first since Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s special status was scrapped in 2019, on Monday reported no incident of militant violence and registered a voter turnout of 35.97% till 5 p.m., which is the highest since 1989. However, the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) complained about \u201cofficial intervention to bring down poll percentage\u201d.
\u201cPoll\u00a0percentage until 5 p.m.\u00a0stood at 36%, marking the second highest turnout since 1989. Not even a single polling booth witnessed zero percent polling in Srinagar parliamentary constituency,\u201d J&K chief electoral officer P.K Pole said. In the 1996 election,\u00a0Srinagar recorded 40.94% amid allegations of coercion.
Follow Lok Sabha voting Phase 4 LIVE updates here<\/a><\/b><\/strong>
Mr. Pole\u00a0said the polls remained peaceful.\u00a0\u201cPreventive measures were taken in cases where individuals had a criminal background or anti-national history to ensure polling stations remained incident-free,\u201d he added.
Compared to the past, a new voting pattern was observed across 18 Assembly segments spread over five districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, Pulwama and Shopian. Militancy hotbeds of Pulwama and Shopian surpassed the previous low voter turnout records, which remained in single digits since 2009. This time, Pulwama district\u2019s Pampore area saw 35.86% voting, Pulwama 39.25%, Rajpora 42.80%, and Tral 37.52%. Shopian district also recorded 45.04%.
Voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting in general election, in Ganderbal district, central Kashmir on May 13, 2024. | Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD
Many voters credited higher turnout to the post-2019 poll narrative of the regional parties, with the candidates promising restoration of Article 370, release of youths from jails, lifting curtailment over freedom of expression and securing jobs and land for locals.
In Pulwama\u2019s Karimabad, once a no-go zone for mainstream political parties because of the domination of local militants, many voters saw this election\u00a0as \u201ca means to end the ongoing raids by security agencies\u201d.
\u201cPulwama district just saw raids and slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) on youths after 2019. Voting is a means to bring a change and end the sense of fear,\u201d said a young voter in Karimabad.
PDP candidate Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra posed for a picture with the father of a slain militant. \u201cIn Aglar, Pulwama, every household bears the weight of a militant\u2019s grave. Today, Qadir Kak, who lost his son to militancy, is voting to prevent more children from becoming collateral damage,\u201d Mr. Parra said.
Unlike rural pockets of south Kashmir that saw brisk polling, urban pockets of Srinagar district recorded relatively less poll percentage, with Channapora recording 22.97%, Eidgah 25.68%, Habba Kadal 13.25%, Hazratbal 26.28%, Khanyar 23.06%, Lal Chowk 26.01% and Zadibal\u00a027.52%. Srinagar city would witness the impact of separatists\u2019 boycott call in the past.
Also read | Jammu and Kashmir: Three generations of Abdullah family cast vote in Srinagar<\/a><\/b><\/strong>
\u201cWe have voted against the BJP and its designs against Muslims of India. See what happened to Babri Masjid. Also, we fear that rich outsiders will come and buy properties in Srinagar. Article 370 and 35A need to be restored,\u201d said a first-time voter on the condition of anonymity at the Boys Higher Secondary School, Nawakadal, in the heart of the old city.
The installation of electricity meters and exorbitant monthly bills remained a common refrain among voters in the city. \u201cElectricity generated in Kashmir is sold outside. Look at the power bills. Ordinary Kashmiris cannot afford them,\u201d said another voter in the downtown city.
In Budgam and Ganderbal districts, the poll percentage was equally healthy. Ganderbal\u00a0district saw 46.81% in Ganderbal segment and 55.55% in Kangan segment. In Budgam district, Khan Sahib saw 48.50%, Chadoora 46.60%, Char-e-Shareef 53.23% and Khan Sahib 48.50%.
National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and two grandsons voted in Srinagar. \u201cOn one hand they (the administration) say there is no boycott and no violence, on the other our workers were arrested. I ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister [Amit Shah] why our workers are jailed? Do they fear defeat?\u201c\u00a0Dr. Abdullah said.
National Conference President Farooq Abdullah along with his son Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after casting their votes during the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election. | Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD
Seconding his father, Mr. Omar Abdullah said: \u201cThe NC provided eight names of the party workers and the names of the police stations to the Election Commission of India (ECI)\u201c.
Both NC candidate Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehda and PDP\u2019s Parra accused the administration of intervention in the poll process. \u201cFrom detention before polling day to CASO (cordon\u00a0and search operation) a night before the polling to arresting the polling agent from polling stations on the day of polling. Police and the administration are trying everything in their dirty book,\u201d Mr. Mehdi said.
PDP candidate Parra also accused the administration of \u201cslowing down the voting process\u201d. \u201cMany of our polling agents were denied entry into polling booths on different pretexts and the polling process\u00a0was also slow,\u201d Mr. Parra said.
A total of 17,47,810 lakh voters\u00a0were registered in the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.
 Jammu and Kashmir <\/a> \/ <\/span> Srinagar <\/a> \/ <\/span> General Elections 2024 <\/a> \/ <\/span> election <\/a> \/ <\/span> politics <\/a>
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To enjoy additional benefitsCONNECT WITH USUpdated – May 13, 2024 11:33 pm IST Published – May 13, 2024 11:53 am IST – SRINAGAR Voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting in general election, in Ganderbal district, Central Kashmir on May 13, 2024. | Photo Credit: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}