In 24 of the state’s 90 seats, voting has begun in the first round of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
A voter turnout of 11.1% has been recorded till 9 am, suggest latest data.
This is the first Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014 and its first since the removal of Article 370, which gave the erstwhile state special status, in 2019. This is also the first time that Jammu and Kashmir will see an Assembly election as a Union Territory. When Article 370 was abrogated, the state was also divided into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Statehood is a major issue in the elections and its restoration has been promised by the BJP – including by PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah – as well as the Congress and the National Conference, which are contesting the polls in an alliance.Â
Another major player is Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party and other parties include Abdul Ghani Lone’s People’s Conference, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party and Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party. An interesting development is the entry in the elections of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami, which is backing some candidates.
Polling is being held in four seats in Pulwama, two in Shopian, three in Kulgam, seven in Anantnag, three in Kishtwar, three in Doda and two each in Ramban and Banihal. Eight of the constituencies are in Jammu and 16 in the Kashmir valley.
One of the seats that is closely following the race is Pulwama. Waheed ur Rehman Para, the PDP youth leader, is running in his first election against Mohammad Khalil Band, a former party veteran who is currently affiliated with the National Conference. Mr. Para, 36, is on bail in a case under the strict anti-terror code, UAPA. He had volunteered for Mr. Band as a youth leader from the PDP in the 2008 and 2014 elections. This 73-year-old MLA has served three terms.
Although the seat is thought to be a PDP stronghold, Talat Majeed, who is supported by the Jamaat, is running from there, thus the party will have an uphill struggle this time. The Awami Ittehad Party of Engineer Rashid, who orchestrated a stunning upset by defeating National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Lok Sabha elections, is allied with the Jamaat.
The Srigufwara-Bijbehara constituency in South Kashmir will see PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, contesting her first Assembly election after the former chief minister refused to enter the electoral fray. Ms Mufti, 37, is up against National Conference’s Bashir Ahmad Shah and the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir Vice President Sofi Yousuf.
In Kulgam, the CPM’s Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami is looking to defend a seat he has won since 1996, but is facing a very different challenge in the form of a candidate backed by the Jamaat. Speaking to NDTV, Mr Tarigami, who is the Congress-National Conference consensus candidate, had said this is not the first time the Jamaat has made a U-turn in terms of entering electoral politics and insisted that there is no “green wave” in the red citadel.
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