SRINAGAR, Dec 3: In the backdrop of bickering among mainstream political parties over winning their loyalties and appeals by separatist leaders for boycott, more than 33,000 elected village heads will vote today to send four representatives to the state’s Legislative Council.
The elections are being held for the first time in more than three decades.
The ruling National Conference-Congress coalition is contesting jointly for two seats each while the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has fielded candidates on all four seats.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also contesting for three seats, with one from Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.
While mainstream political parties have been busy wooing Sarpanches and Panches to garner support for their favourites among the total 37, senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has appealed to them for a boycott.
“Coffins of martyrs have also come out of your houses. So you should not be a part of the election process. These elections are used as a tool by India to justify its occupation in Kashmir,” he said in a statement.
But the hardliner separatist’s call is destined to yield no response as has been happening since 2008-2009 assembly elections which saw a higher-than-expected voter turnout of 60 percent.
The Panchayat polls in 2011, when the Sarpanchs and Panchs were elected, saw a voter percentage of more than 80 percent. The polls last year, also held for the first time in thirty years, were celebrated as an historic achievement by the Omar Abdullah-led government.
But, and more significantly, they coincided with the gradual easing of militants’ hold over basic, daily life in Kashmir, where tens of thousands have died since 1989, when simmering discontent against New Delhi turned into a full blown rebellion.
Our correspondent, Rakib Altaf says in Kashmir region the polls today are a showdown between the NC and PDP, both of which claim more prominence and support among the grassroots’ representatives and hence ordinary masses.
No militant group has threatened to interfere in these elections.
But atleast 12 security personnel will be guarding each of the 145 polling booths across the state, 57 of which have been declared sensitive and 42 marked as hypersensitive, authorities have said.
Junior minister for home affairs, Nasir Aslam Wani said all measures have been taken “to prevent any untoward incident”.
More than six Sarpanchs and Panchs have been killed in attacks since the elections last year. The NC and the PDP have been subtly blaming each other for the killings.
“Those Panchayat members who were killed were the supporters of National Conference and their killing would benefit a certain party,” Law, rural development and Panchayati Raj minister, Ali Mohammed Sagar said during a session of the assembly recently.
The minister’s comments evoked a sharp response from the PDP legislators who blamed the NC for the killings and said: They (NC) intend to push for a boycott of assembly elections in 2014 and everyone knows who benefits from boycott of elections in the state.
