Mir Farhat
—Excelsior/Amin War
KULGAM, Apr 24: Ifra Rashid, 18, was excited as she stood in a queue of voters along with her two friends outside a fairly crowded polling station in a Kulgam, ready to vote for the first time in their life.
Ifra, a Class 12 student, is one among the 1, 48,480 first time young voters in the age group of 18-19 in the State. She like other young voters had come to caste her first vote at a polling station in Chattabal village in Kulgam district, where 35 votes out of 775 were cast in first hour of voting.
“I have come to vote so that those people are elected who will help generate employment in the State. I want to see my area gets benefitted from the person who is elected,” Ifra said, with her face covered by her headscarf.
However, she could not explain the “benefit” which she could get from her vote.
Her friend Shunu, 18, chips in trying to explain the benefit. “We want that the candidate who is people-friendly, the one who can build macadamized roads, and open new high schools in our area,” says Shunu, a Class 10 student, before displaying her inked finger to a group of cameramen.
These young girls, though studying, could not say whether they were voting for Parliament or for Assembly elections. “Our parents told us to come to vote and we obliged them,” they said.
In an adjacent village, at Yaroo polling station in Damhal Hanjipora, Nargis, a Class 12 student, the first time voter, said she has come to vote to bring the change. “I want to bring in that candidate who fulfills our daily life demands. I want that the new Government brings the inflation down,” she said, with her friends standing behind her nodding.
For these girls development of their area, education and generating employment are the key issues they voted for.
Voting across the Anantnag-Pulwama constituency seat spanned across 16 Assembly segments in four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian.
These young excited voters had come to vote in the four Assembly segments in Kulgam district that saw a total turnout of 36.68 percent.
Ashiq Hussian was among the young boys who turned up at Yaroo Polling Station to vote for the first time. He was standing with dozens of other young voters at the tail of a long queue at whose head were elderly men waiting for their turn.
“I have come to vote so that the goons’ rule in our area unleashed by the National Conference ends. Our representatives have oppressed the young in the area. And they have embezzled funds meant for development of the area,” Hussain, who will be completing his graduation next year, said.
When asked that they were voting in Parliament elections and it cannot help change the Government in the State, Hussain said: “This election is like making the first step of the ladder. When we cross this step the next can be achieved too.”
These youths said they have defied the boycott call so that their vote “can help change the present government”. “We too would have boycotted, but that will not change the goon rule in our area,” they said.
“Whenever stone pelting occurred in our area FIRs were registered against those boys who were not involved. The reason being that they support the opponents of the ruling party,” Sajad Ahmad Ganaie, a driver, said.
Youth voters in other polling stations like Mirhama and Khur Batpora in Noorabad segment too said that they voted for education and employment.
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