Tasavur Mushtaq
Srinagar
The voting has started at 7am for Srinagar by-polls in which nine candidates are in fray including the National Conference veteran and former chief minister of J&K Dr Farooq Abdullah. Dr Abdullah is contesting the seat for the third time. He has represented the seat twice.
The fate of candidates will be decided by 12,61,397 voters in Srinagar and a total of 1,559 polling stations where at least 6,236 polling staff has been deployed.
Composed of 15 assembly segments including Kangan, Ganderbal, Hazratbal, Zadibal, Idgah, Khanyar, Habbakadal, Amirakadal, Sonwar, Batamaloo, Chadoora, Budgam, Beerwah, Khansahab and Charar-i-Sharif, the seat fell vacant after PDP founding member Tariq Hameed Karra resigned last summer from both the party and Lok Sabha and later joined Congress.
Dr Abdullah is locking horns with previous Congress leader who recently joined PDP Nazir Ahmed Khan who contested Assembly elections from Beerwah constituency on Congress ticket in 2014 and lost to his rival Omar Abdullah with a thin margin.
Earlier Dr Abdullah lost first time in his three decade long political career to Tariq Karra in 2014 parliamentary elections. Interestingly Karra this time is backing Dr Abdullah as a joint candidate of NC—Congress.
Voter turnout in 2014 polls was 26 per cent, slightly better than 25.55 per cent recorded in 2009 elections.
Seven other independent candidates including Bikram Singh, Chetan Sharma, Sajad Reshi, Ghulam Hasan Dar, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Mehraj Khurshid Malik and Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh are also in the fray.
All the polling stations in Srinagar have been declared as either sensitive or hyper-sensitive by the Election Commission.
“Based on threat perception by intelligence agencies and security forces, the EC has categorized most of the polling stations as ‘hyper sensitive’ and ‘sensitive,” an official said.
Police and paramilitary forces are being deployed in sufficient strength to secure the polling stations and voters. Fearing protests and violence, police have launched a crackdown in different parts and many youth have been rounded up and lodged in different police stations. Voting will end at 5 p.m.
