Low turnout of migrant Kashmiri Pandits hurts BJP in the Valley Party blames cumbersome Election Commission procedures for poor showing. The low participation by migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly elections could spoil the BJPs chances of opening its account in the valley. The party had hoped that while Muslims would heed the separatists boycott call, migrant Kashmiri Pandits would vote en masse for its candidates in the Habba Kadal and Amira Kadal constituencies in Srinagar, which have a significant number of migrant voters. However, only 2,817 migrant Kashmiri Pandits voted in Habba Kadal, while over 8,000 Muslims voted. In Amira Kadal, the BJP faced a similar situation, with only 837 Kashmiri migrant Pandits voting. Their turnouts were equally dismal in other Hazratbal (360), Zadibal (77), Eidgah (68), Khanyar (290), Sonwar (236) and Batamaloo (464). In all, the 31,000 migrant voters, only 5,169 cast their ballot, according to J&K chief electoral officer Umang Narula. Kashmiri Pandits have never influenced results in Kashmir, but low turnouts due to the boycott created a situation where participation by Kashmiri Pandits, especially migrants, in large numbers could decide the outcome. Political observers say that the prime beneficiary of the poor turnout by the Pandits will be the National Conference. The BJP was hoping to win its first seat in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley, with a series of rallies in Srinagar and other areas led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and Minister of State Jitendra Singh, as well as an aggressive PR campaign. The BJP had carefully studied voter behaviour in Habba Kadal, where only 11.62% of people voted in 2008. This time round, a 21.01% turnout was recorded in the constituency. Ashwani Charngoo, president of Panun Kashmiri, an organisation of migrant Kashmiri Pandits, said the Election Commission had made it very difficult for migrant Pandits to vote. The process of voting for migrant Kashmiri Pandits is disempowering, discouraging and cumbersome, Chrangoo said. BJP spokesman Khalid Jehangir also blamed the cumbersome voting process for the poor participation. The Election Commissions procedure to register voters was extremely difficult for migrant Pandits. This was a big turn off for most of them, he said.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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