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Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, June 22: Fate of eight candidates including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been sealed as Anantnag Assembly segment went for by-poll today and recorded 34 percent turnout, the lowest in last two elections. The counting of votes will be held on June 25.
Addressing a press conference here, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shantmanu said out of total 84067 electors including 4229 migrant voters a total of 28446 cast their votes during the polling period which started at 7 in the morning and concluded at 6 in the evening. He said out of 42840 male voters and 41227 female voters, 15384 male, 13062 female and 638 migrant voters exercised their franchise in the by-election of Anantnag Assembly segment.
The CEO said 13 polling booths were also set up at Jammu for migrant voters, one each at Udhampur and Delhi, adding that 3 additional observers were also deployed for these three locations. He said the Election Commission of India had deployed 4 Observers including two General Observers, one Expenditure Observer and one Police and Security Observer for monitoring. The CEO said 118 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for the polling on 117 polling booths and one EVM was replaced at Gangyal Jammu before start of poll as it developed technical snag. He said 582 personnel were detailed for election duty.
The Anantnag seat fell vacant following the death of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in AIIMS at New Delhi on January 7, 2016. The constituency was represented by Sayeed, the father of incumbent Chief Minister who is herself contesting from the constituency, for two successive terms in 2008 and 2014 as People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate. Besides Mehbooba of PDP, Hilal Ahmad Shah of Congress, Iftikhar Hussain Misgar of National Conference (NC) and Independents Tejinder Singh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan, Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman, Masroor Ahmad Mir and Mushtaq Ahmad Shah are in the fray.
Amid boycott call by separatists and militants and unprecedented security arrangements, the voting in Anantnag began on sluggish pace and picked up by noon but couldn’t persist till long. The polling stations in Anantnag town were largely deserted but the rural areas witnessed queues of voters. The visible enthusiasm among voters, both males and females, was seen at Muniwar, Krangsoo and Kehrbal villages where voters defied separatists’ boycott call and voted in large numbers.
One of the voters, Nasir Ahmad, who was waiting in a queue early morning said they are voting in the hope that their elected representative would work for sustained development and an end to the unemployment. Others categorically said they are voting to keep “RSS-backed” PDP at bay.
Rafiqa, a first time woman voter said she has high hopes from Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. “We want an end to the menace of unemployment”, she said.
“We youth are being oppressed from every side. We are being forced to pick up guns. There is unemployment…,” said a youngster, who was in late 20s, outside a polling booth at Muniwar.
Another young voter said: “There has been no development here. We want to elect that representative who will carry out development works. Noting is being done; the work is zero. So that’s why we all have come out to vote so that a good representative is elected who will work for the betterment of the people.”
There was low turnout in Anantnag town and its peripheries as people preferred to stay indoors amid tension. The Town has been tense since the killing of two policemen in a daring broad day attack by militants while incidents of stone-pelting also occurred in past few days. Though the day passed off peacefully but couple of stone-pelting incidents occurred in the evening hours at Achabal Adda and Ganjiwara in which few officials of polling staff sustained injuries.
The CEO said 102 polling booths were set up at 61 designated locations which included 52 hypersensitive and 50 sensitive polling stations. He said that 8 candidates were in fray for the constituency. He said that 20 polling stations were set up as model polling stations equipped with necessary facilities. He said 77 Micro Observers were deployed on the booths to ensure free and fair polls. He said that webcasting facility at 20 polling booths and videography at 5 polling booths was also available to cover the poll process.
Shantmanu said that the postal ballots were also dispatched to migrants, service voters and detainees and under trials at different places. About 93 per cent voter slips were distributed among the voters, he added. The CEO said the polling was held in a peaceful atmosphere and so far no case of violation and untoward incident was reported from any part of the constituency.
Winning Anantnag by-poll is a must for the Chief Minister of the State to fulfill within six months of being sworn in to enter the State legislature.
In Jammu, there was a low turnout among the migrant voters in Anatnag by elections today and only 655 votes were polled out of 1799 votes at 15 polling stations in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi today.
Only 655 votes were polled at 13 polling booths in Jammu and one polling both each at Udhampur and Delhi by Kashmiri migrants out of 1799 votes for which the Kashmiri migrants had filled up M Forms. Out of them 630 votes were polled on 13 polling stations in Jammu though 1765 migrants had filled up their M Forms to cast their votes on these polling stations while 12 out of 16 votes were polled at Udhampur and 13 out of 18 were polled at Delhi.
The Government had created the special polling stations to facilitate migrants to cast their votes in by election of Anantnag Assembly Segment at Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi.
There were total 3900 migrant votes in the Constituency out of which only 1799 forms were filled up by Kashmiri migrants showing their willingness to cast the votes in the by election. Out of them 1765 M Forms were filled up for 13 polling booths in Jammu district, 18 M Forms for one polling booth in Udhampur and 16 M Forms for one polling booth at Delhi.
The main reason for less turnout of migrant voters in Jammu was heavy morning rains and people preferred to remain indoors. Though weather improved by he afternoon but the turnout did not increase.
ARO Migrants Sachin Dev Singh said that polling remained peaceful for entire day. He said earlier the Department had decided to set up 15 polling booths for migrants in Jammu but after no M Form was received for two polling booths the number of establishing special polling booths was reduced to 13 only.
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