Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 20: Percentage in the just concluded District Development Council (DDC) elections has shown significant increase in almost all districts and major towns of Kashmir division as compared to 2018 Panchayat and 2019 Parliamentary elections.
Official figures showed massive increase in voter turnout especially in Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts and Sopore area of Kashmir as against the last year’s Lok Sabha elections when prominent candidates of National Conference and PDP were in the fray.
In Srinagar district, the voting percentage in 2019 Parliamentary elections was 7.9 percent while it stood at 14.5 percent in 2018 Panchayat polls. However, in eight-phase DDC elections which concluded yesterday, voting percentage in Srinagar district rose to 35.3, up nearly five times from the Lok Sabha polls.
In Ganderbal district, turnout was 17.5 percent in the Parliamentary polls and 27.4 percent in Panchayat elections which went up to 44.3 percent in the DDC polls, a significant increase of nearly 27 percent from the last year.
Turnout was almost same at 21 percent in Budgam district in Panchayat and Parliamentary polls but it has jumped to 41.5 percent in the DDC elections, nearly the double.
Even in South Kashmir district of Anantnag which had recorded 9.3 percent polling in 2018 and 13.8 in 2019, the turnout was 24.9 percent in 2020 polls.
Quite significant is the increase in voting percentage in Kulgam, another district in South Kashmir where 25 percent votes were cast in the DDC polls as compared to 6.4 percent in Panchayat polls and 10.2 in Lok Sabha elections.
In Shopian, which is yet another district of South Kashmir, the turnout of DDC polls, albeit low at 15.4 percent, however, marked an increase from 3.4 percent of Parliamentary polls.
Awantipora area which had registered just 4 percent voting in Panchayat polls and 3 percent in Parliament elections, recorded 9.9 percent turnout in the DDC polls, a three-time increase from Lok Sabha polling
Bandipora district had registered 44 percent voting in Panchayat polls and 32 percent in Lok Sabha polls but 55.6 percent people exercise their right to franchise in the DDC polls.
Sopore, which was once known as hub of separatists, had voting percentage of 7.6 percent in the Parliamentary elections but in the DDC polls, the percentage went up to 23.8.
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