Amid boycott calls, Srinagar votes today

Azhar Qadri
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, April 17

The Srinagar parliamentary constituency comprising three central Kashmir districts will go to the polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on Thursday.

Security personnel and polling staff have been stationed at their designated locations across the constituency, where the voting will be held at 1,710 booths.

In the city, where the past elections have witnessed low voter turnout, 857 polling booths at 408 locations have been sanitised and final arrangements were put in place, a senior official said.

All polling stations in Srinagar city have been designated as hypersensitive, the official added.

The constituency, which is spread overSrinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts, has 12.95 lakh voters.

The polling in the constituency will begin at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm. The campaigning in the constituency ended on Tuesday on an unusually peaceful note.

However, the polling in Srinagar is likely to be shadowed by the separatist and militant calls for boycott even as the former, who are facing a crippling crackdown, has not been able to mount any anti-election campaign.

In the 2014 election, the constituency had recorded 26 per cent turnout, which had resulted in the victory of PDP candidate Tariq Karra and also saw the first electoral defeat of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah.

Karra’s resignationfrom the PDP and the Lok Sabha had necessitated a byelection in 2017, which was marred by protests and civilian killings on the polling day and ended on a record low turnout of 7.14 per cent.

Twelve candidates are in the fray for the seat. The frontrunners include incumbent Farooq, PDP’s Aga Mohsin and People’s Conference’s Irfan Ansari while the rest of the candidates lack any robust organisational support or personal acclaim.

All booths in city  hypersensitive

• The Srinagar parliamentary constituency spread over Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts has 12.95 lakh voters
• All polling stations in Srinagar city have been designated hypersensitive