NC piggybacks Congress, PDP wary of boycott
ANANTNAG: Polls are being held on Thursday for the single parliamentary seat in South Kashmir’s four districts. Among a dozen candidates in fray the spotlight will stay on PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, who holds sway on at least 12 out of 16 assembly seats in the region, and NC’s Mehboob Beg, who is solely relying on Congress particularly in the bulk-voting areas of Kokernag, and Dooru.
Even as the elections have already been held for two seats of Jammu region, South Kashmir has emerged as the most sensitive one, given the recent killings and incidents of violence that occurred in parts of Pulwama district.
This electoral battle is going to be a litmus test for the Peoples Democratic Party’s leading light Mehbooba Mufti as well as for Congress-National Conference coalition, which is backing the NC’s face in Anantnag Meboob Beg, a former physician.
Security has been beefed up and heavy deployment has been made across all the districts especially in Tral, Anantnag and Shopian towns, police sources said. More than 83 percent of 1600 polling stations in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency have been designated as hypersensitive or sensitive by the election authorities as they are apprehensive of violence during polling in these areas.
Of the 1615 polling stations in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, 690 polling stations have been designated as hypersensitive as there is apprehension of violence in these polling station areas during the polling while 659 polling stations have been designated as sensitive.
Though there are 12 candidates in the fray yet direct fight is between Mehbooba Mufti and NC-Cong coailiation member Mehboob Beigh who at present represents the Constituency. Among other significant candidates, who may not reach the winning bar yet have potential to slash good chunk of vote share of the two main rivals include Aam Admi Party candidate Tanvir Maqbool Dar. Tanvir is the son of the former Congress leader Muhammad Maqbool Dar who contested successfully in 1983 and 1996 from Shangus Constituency. Muhammad Maqbool Dar was the MLA of Congress party who later on joined Janta Dal and became the Minister of State for Home.
A Peoples Democratic Party leader said on condition of anonymity that the only worry for the party is that there should be no election boycott and people should vote in large number. It would be a cake-walk for Mehboobaji, if people would come out from their houses to vote, he said.
Nevertheless, a lot would depend upon the voting percentage on the polling day as fear psychosis amoung people is evident after the four political killings in the constituency.
National Conference is pinning hope on its committed traditional party workers who has a history of casting their vote at any cost. Political observers feel that the boycott is surely going to help National Conference.
Of the 16 assembly segments in Anantnag seat, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLAs represent 12 segments which indicates that PDP has dismal chances to bag the seat in case people boycott the elections.
Total electors for the Anantnag Lok Sabha Constituency are 1301115 among which the male are 683691 while number of female voters is 615935, others are 39 and services are 1450.
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