Srinagar: Over 10.50 lakh voters will get to decide the political fate of 123 candidates, including seven ministers and 12 sitting MLAs, who are in the fray in 15 constituencies in the first phase of the five phased Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
Polling will start at 8:00 am and will continue till 4:00 pm in all the 1,787 polling booths set up by the authorities.
The performance of the political parties in this phase is crucial as it will play a vital role in deciding their future and the structure of the new government in the state. For ruling National Conference (NC) and its coalition partner the Congress it is a do or die situation as the former is defending seven seats while the later is seeking re-election from six Assembly constituencies.
The phase is also crucial for Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) as it can pave the way for the saffron party to accomplish its 'Mission 44-plus', a feat that will enable it to form a government in India's only Muslim-majority state, as three district of Jammu region - Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar - which have a Muslim majority are going to poll in the first phase. Except Gurez and Sonawari constituencies, BJP has fielded candidates in all 13 constituencies. BJP has to win all the 37 seats in Jammu region and four in Ladakh besides three in Kashmir valley to achieve the mission.
The performance in two districts in Kashmir valley - Bandipora and Ganderbal and two in the Ladakh region - Kargil and Leh, will play an important role in deciding the importance of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is defending just one seat, in the new government formations.
Meanwhile, the highly talked about Kashmiri Pandit vote bank will hardly make any difference in this phase as there are just 3441 voters in the all the 15 constituencies, expected to witness higher voter turnout as was witnessed in the past when the impact of boycott was much more visible in the valley.
Of these, highest number of 1,597 Kashmiri Pandit voters are registered in two Assembly segments of Bandipora district - Bandipora constituency (1,349) and Sonawari (203) while 1,844 such voters are registered in two Assembly segments in Ganderbal district - Kangan (852) and Ganderbal constituency (992).
In 2008 Assembly elections, the highest 74.02 voter turnout was recorded in border constituency of Gurez while the lowest was 51.99 per cent in Ganderbal seat from where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was elected as an MLA. However, after announcing that he will not contest from his family political bastion Ganderbal, Omar decided to seek mandate from Sonawar in Srinagar and Beerwah in central Kashmir district of Badgam, going to the polls in third and fourth phase respectively.
Ironically there are just two women candidates seeking mandate in the first phase while the number of undergraduates in the fray are more than 50 per cent. Out of 123 candidates, two are illiterate, 72 have declared their educational qualification as 12th pass or below while only 48 are graduation or above.
The seven ministers from Omar-led government seeking re-election from their respective constituencies in the first phase include Minister of State for Animal and Sheep Husbandry Nazir Ahmad Gurezi from Gurez, Higher Education Minister Mohammad Akbar Lone from Sonawari, Forests Minister Mian Altaf from Kangan, Urban Development Minister Rigzin Jora from Leh, Works Minister Abdul Mujeed Wani from Doda, Minister of State for Home Sajjad Kitchloo from Kishtwar and Minister of State for Power Viqar Rasool Wani from Banihal.
As many as 275 companies of paramilitary forces and the state police have been deployed to build confidence among the people to come out and vote without any fear in these constituencies.
Meanwhile, the authorities have set up 1,787 polling stations, mostly Hyder Sensitive and Sensitive in the length and breadth of these constituencies for 10,51,642 electorate, including 5,01,281 women.
(Abid Soffi is Managing Editor, 'Kashmir Pioneer'. He lives in Srinagar.)
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