At 79, Farooq Abdullah is a familiar face of the contest for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, which will go to the polls for the second time in four years on Sunday. In the last poll in 2014, the NC president had suffered a rout. This is his chance to make a comeback.
The Srinagar parliamentary constituency is formed of the 15 Assembly segments: eight located in Srinagar district, five in Budgam and two in Ganderbal.
Srinagar, home to 1.2 million people, is a bustling district and the urban heartland of the Kashmir valley. It is also one of the two capital cities of Jammu and Kashmir, and along with the adjoining Ganderbal and Budgam, the three districts make up the Srinagar parliamentary constituency.
The prized constituency, however, struggles with low voter turnout as 11.93 per cent electors turned out to vote in 1999, 18.57 per cent in 2004 and 25.55 per cent in 2009. In the last election of 2014, the voter turnout was 25.86 per cent as 3.12 lakh of the 12.07 votes were cast.
The campaigning for the Srinagar’s byelection has been lacklustre. There have been no grand shows, no public rallies and no hoardings of promises; instead the electioneering has been confined to thin-attendance meetings held in the safe confines of party offices, residences and government buildings.
Contesting the bypoll on a soft-separatist rhetoric, the National Conference is positioning itself as anti-Delhi and anti-RSS. It has not initiated any debate on the development of the constituency, but has been criticising the PDP for forging the alliance with the BJP.
The PDP, in turn, has been blaming the National Conference for exploiting Srinagar for political gains and accused it of ignoring the development of the constituency.
Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu said 40 polling stations had been shifted to safer locations in the constituency due to security considerations even as an additional force of 300 paramilitary companies comprising 30,000 personnel will be deployed on the polling day in Srinagar constituency.
The election will be held in the shadow of a series of events which may impact the voting percentages. Last year’s unrest, which had led to a long spell of curfew and shutdown in the region, will affect the voting mood.
The recent gunfight in Chadoora town in which a militant and three protesters were killed will also impact the polling pattern in Budgam district, which generally witnesses a high voter turnout.
Even as nine candidates are in the race for Srinagar parliamentary seat, the main fight will be between NC chief Farooq, who is backed by the Congress, and Nazir Ahmad Khan, a former Congress member and now a candidate of the ruling PDP.
Farooq, who has served the state as Chief Minister for three terms and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Srinagar twice, had lost the last Lok Sabha election and was routed from all Assembly segments that make up the Srinagar constituency.
His 2014 opponent Tariq Hameed Karra resigned from the PDP and the Lok Sabha last year in protest against the state government’s response to the unrest. It was his resignation which necessitated the by election.
40 stations shifted
The Srinagar parliamentary constituency constitutes 15 Assembly segments: eight in Srinagar district, five in Budgam and two in Ganderbal.
40 polling stations had been shifted to safer locations in the constituency due to security considerations even as an additional force of 300 paramilitary companies comprising 30,000 personnel will be deployed on the polling day in Srinagar constituency.
It’s NC-PDP battle
Even as nine candidates are in the race for Srinagar seat, the main fight will be between NC chief Farooq, who is backed by the Congress, and Nazir Ahmad Khan, a former Congress member and now a PDP candidate.
Campaigning comes to close
The election campaign for the Srinagar parliamentary by election came to an end on Friday ahead of the polling on Sunday. An electorate of 12.6 lakh voters will decide the fate of nine candidates in the fray for the byelection.
Waterlogging concerns
Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu, at a meeting held here in Srinagar on Friday directed the District Electoral Officers to dedicate a core team for election duties for the next two days. Regarding the adverse weather conditions, he directed the officials to check all polling stations to address waterlogging issues.
To wrest Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah toes Soft-Separatist line
