In Kashmir, all six Pandit candidates fail to make a mark

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 24

Kashmiri Pandits failed to make a mark in the Legislative Assembly elections as not a single candidate managed to win from the Valley.

Six Pandits were in the fray. Four of them were contesting on the BJP ticket. They are Moti Koul from Habba Kadal, Desh Kumar Nehru from Rafiabad, Ashok Bhat from Khanyar and PN Pandita from Bijbehara. Two other Pandit candidates, Sanjay Saraf of the LJP and former minister and Congress candidate Raman Mattoo, also tried their luck from the Habba Kadal constituency.

While the Habba Kadal seat, having the largest number of Hindu voters, was won by NC’s Shamima Firdous who got 4,955 votes, Moti Koul was the runner-up with 2,596 votes. In Rafiabad, Desh Kumar Nehru came fifth and got 634 votes. From Khanyar, Ashok Kumar Bhat got 550 votes and was placed fourth.

On the Bijbehara seat, Pushkar Nath Pandita was third with 1,591 votes. Sanjay Saraf got 830 votes while Raman Mattoo got 973 votes from Habba Kadal.

The break-up of the 92,000 Pandit voters in the 44 Assembly seats and thousands of migrant Pandits missing from the voter lists were the reasons for the debacle. “The good turnout in the Valley and not many migrant Pandits opting to vote through the M-forms are the main reasons for the failure of the community candidates to win the seat. We had a chance of winning the Habba Kadal seat but there was a low turnout,” said Veer Saraf, a BJP leader.

“We need to think where things have gone wrong. This is the time for the community leaders to introspect,” said Harish Bhat, a university student.