Last phase of J&K civic poll ends, 4.2 per cent turnout in Valley

Srinagar: A meagre 4.2 per cent polling was recorded in the fourth and final phase of municipal elections in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday.

J&K’s chief electoral officer (CEO), Shaleen Kabra, said that polling was held in 24 wards of Srinagar and in 12 neighbouring Ganderbal town.

“Ganderbal witnessed 11.3 per cent polling in 12 wards with 38 candidates in the fray, whereas Srinagar witnessed 4 per cent polling in 24 wards,” he said.

Mr Kabra said that the cumulative poll percentage in all the four phases in all the three regions of the state — Jammu, Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh — have been 35.1 per cent.

The municipal elections, held in four phases, covered 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 1.7 million. A total of 3,372 nominations had filed nomination for 1,145 wards.

In the three earlier polling phases, maximum voter turnout — 56.7 per cent — was recorded in the first phase in Jammu and Kashmir, while the least voter turnout in the state was registered during the third phase (16.4 per cent). The voters in Kashmir Valley had generally stayed away from the exercise.

The fight is between Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the state’s two principal parties — National Conference (NC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Alliance (PDP) — have boycotted the elections over lack of clarity in the Centre’s stand on Articles 35A of the Constitution. On the other hand, the separatists had urged the people to stay away from these “sham” and “forced” elections.

Former chief minister and vice president of NC, Omar Abdullah, had alleged following the third phase of the polling that the Centre has mishandled Kashmir. He sought reasons for the poor voter turnout.

Reacting to poor turnout, an alliance of key separatist leaders, called the ‘Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL),’ said on Tuesday that the government admitted that 95 per cent people in the Valley staying away from these “forced” elections “is a clear indication that the alienation of the people of Kashmir from India is complete.”