Srinagar voter turnout up, Jharkhand logs 61% voting

SRINAGAR | RANCHI : The fourth phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand passed off peacefully, with all 8 seats in Srinagar recording a higher turnout than 2008 and Jharkhand registering over 61%. There were a few incidents of clashes in J&K. Though 18 seats (16 in three Kashmir districts and two in Jammu’s Samba district) went to polls in the penultimat phase, the focus was on Srinagar.

Fifteen constituencies of Jharkhand that went to the polls on Sunday were Dhanbad, Bokaro, Madhupur, Deogarh (SC), Bagodar, Jamua (SC), Gandey, Giridih, Dumri, Chandankyari (SC), Sindri, Nirsa, Jharia, Tundi and Baghmara. “61.08 per cent polling has been registered, which may go up (in the final count),” Chief Electoral Officer P K Jajoria told reporters here adding voting passed off peacefully.

J&K, which registered over 50% turnout, had polling stations in the heart of old Srinagar wearing a deserted look for most of the day. Some of them barely had a visitor but there were impressive long lines outside the booths in areas falling in Amirakadal constituency, the city-centre. Unlike earlier elections, when a select group of males queued up, there were women in good numbers waiting their turn.

Of Srinagar’s eight assembly seats, Khanyar and Habakadal are urban, unlike six other seats having semiurban territorial components as well. Boycott in urban belts is offset by improved participation in peripheral areas. This time, however, small participation in the urban belts and better involvement in the periphery pushed the percentage up.

Participation in city’s eight seats remained in single digit in 2002 and improved in 2008. In 2014, however, new records in post-militancy were created: Hazratbal went up from 28.91% in 2008 to 29.36% in 2014, Zadibal 17.3% to 23.64%, Eidgah 22.07% to 27.79%, Khanyar 17.41% to 26.12%, Habbakadal 11.62% to 21.01%, Amirakadal 14.98% to 24.81%, Sonawar 39.61% to 44.17%, and Batamaloo 19.95% to 24.31%.

“The participation was recorded 11.17% in 2002 which improved to 21.93% in 2008,” Chief Electoral Officer Umang Narula said. “It has gone up to 28% which is 7% increase.” “We went to the polling station quite early,” Abdul Rashid, a resident in Abi Guzar located near the deserted Lal Chowk said. “For us, it took barely an hour and now we are free.”

In Maisuma, a group of men and women came out in a protest against polls. Carrying placards of boycott, they engaged the cops for some time. Later, youngsters opted for a swift and brief stone shower on cops before disappearing into the labyrinth of lanes.