Jammu and Kashmir voters send a message with near 60% turnout

Kokernag: The first phase of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir's 24 seats concluded on Wednesday evening, recording a turnout of around 60%, even as voters across the seven districts complained about lack of development, unemployment, inflated electricity bills and youngsters languishing in jails.

This is the first assembly election in 10 years and the first after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, when the erstwhile state was downgraded into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.

Voters that ET talked to seemed conscious of the fact that the legislators they had come out to vote for would be representatives of a weak assembly in a UT setup but they said that "local representatives were better than "alien bureaucrats".

"There is acute unemployment and people are suffering due to price rise and lack of development. We have been relegated into a dark corner and silence has been imposed on us," said Muhammad Shaban Mir, 75, a farmer from Kokernag constituency.

"Our youngsters are being summoned to police stations and hundreds of them are in jail. We want a redressal mechanism which will take us out of this hell," said Abdul Rashid, 63, from Qaimoh area in Kulgam.

At several polling stations, voters said that their villages are yet to get clean drinking water, an upgraded hospital or even a veterinary facility for the livestock. The first phase has sealed fate of several prominent faces.