J&K's Anantnag-Rajouri Seat "Shatters" Turnout Record With 53% Polling

Srinagar/New Delhi:

The Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat “shattered” the voter turnout record with 53% of voters exercising their franchise, the highest in 40 years, the Election Commission (EC) said today, adding that a record polling percentage was also logged in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar and Baramulla.

With this, the three seats in the Kashmir valley – Srinagar (38.49%), Baramulla (59.1%), and Anantnag-Rajouri (53%) – recorded the highest voter turnouts “in many decades”, the poll panel said.

This was the first major election in the Union Territory following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution by the Centre in August 2019.

The high voter turnout in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat was in sharp contrast to the poll percentage of nine registered in the 2019 election.

Even the militancy-infested Zainapora Assembly segment, which saw a 2% turnout in 2019, recorded a poll percentage of 41.

Addressing reporters in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pandurang Kundbarao Pole said the voter turnout in Anantnag-Rajouri was 53%. The voter turnout for the five Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir stood at 58%, he said.

“It is the highest turnout for these five seats in the last 40 years. The previous high was 49% recorded in 2014, while the turnout in 1996 was 47.99%,” Mr Pole added.

The Surankote, Rajouri, and Budhal Assembly segments recorded the highest turnout of 68%, he said.

The Kulgam Assembly segment recorded the lowest poll percentage of 32.

Mr Pole said the polling was mostly peaceful, with no violence reported from anywhere.

Officials said barring an isolated incident in Bijbehara, polling was smooth across the Lok Sabha constituency comprising 18 Assembly segments spread over the five districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian, Poonch, and Rajouri.

In a delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir in 2022, Pulwama district and the Shopian Assembly segment were removed from the south Kashmir Lok Sabha seat, while seven Assembly segments from Poonch and Rajouri were added to it.

Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said the EC, encouraged by the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir, will “very soon” initiate the process of Assembly polls in the Union Territory. The people of Jammu and Kashmir deserve their own government, he said.

“The people of Jammu and Kashmir, in the Anantnag-Rajouri polling too, have reposed faith in democracy and proved naysayers wrong,” the EC said in a statement.

According to the poll panel, the erstwhile Anantnag seat recorded the lowest turnout of 5.07% in 1989 and 50.2% in 1996.

Due to the delimitation exercise, the voter turnout data from previous elections for the current Anantnag-Rajouri seat may not be directly comparable, the EC noted.

Twenty candidates, including two women, were in the fray from Anantnag-Rajouri.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti contested the polls from Anantnag-Rajouri. She was up against the National Conference’s (NC) Mian Altaf Ahmad. Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Manhas was also among the 20 candidates in the fray.

In the 11 Assembly segments falling in the Kashmir valley, the poll percentage was around 42.

The EC also enabled the Kashmiri migrant voters residing at various relief camps in Delhi, Jammu, and Udhampur to have the option of voting in person at the special polling stations or through postal ballots. Twenty-one special polling stations were set up in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in Delhi.

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