J&K polls: Baramulla, Sopore shun boycott, see highest voter turnout in 3 decades

Srinagar, Oct 1 (PTI) The three border districts of Kashmir — Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara — registered a voter turnout of 60 per cent with traditional boycott bastions of Sopore and Baramulla towns witnessing the highest turnout in an election in the last three decades.

However, the turnout in the 16 Assembly segments of these three districts on Tuesday was nearly 5 per cent less than what was recorded in the 2014 Assembly polls.

The third and final phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls was held on Tuesday. The polling in the 40 Assembly segments across seven districts, including the winter capital Jammu, began at 7 am and concluded at 6 pm. The votes will be counted on October 8.

According to the election commission data, Sopore town, which was once a hotbed of separatism and militancy, witnessed a turnout of 41.44 per cent — 11 per cent more than the 2014 Assembly polls.

In the Baramulla Assembly seat, nearly 48 per cent of voters exercised their franchise. The turnout in this election was 8 per cent more than in 2014.

The Pattan Assembly segment also registered a higher voter turnout compared to 2014 as nearly 61 per cent electorate cast their votes.

One of the key factors attributed to the higher voter turnout in Sopore was the presence of Aijaz Guru, the brother of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, as a contestant.

In Baramulla, too, Jamaat-e-Islami-backed independent candidate Abdul Rehman Shalla entering the fray seems to have had a positive effect on the voter turnout.

However, some of the constituencies which had seen high voter turnout in the Assembly elections 10 years ago, saw a drop in percentage.

Among the areas that saw a substantial dip were Lok Sabha member Sheikh Abdul Rashid’s native Langate segment and Kupwara and Handwara segments, the two seats where People’s Conference president Sajad Lone is contesting.

Border constituencies of Uri and Karnah also saw more than a 10 per cent dip in the turnout. While 82.85 per cent of voters had cast their votes in Uri in 2014, the number fell to 64.81 per cent this time.

Sonawari segment in Bandipora district also saw a dip of around 15 per cent — from 80.77 per cent in 2014 to 65.56 per cent this time.

While there were 15 Assembly segments in the three districts which went to polls on Tuesday, one seat was added to it after the delimitation exercise of 2022.

However, there was no change in the territorial borders of the three districts as polling was held in the same areas today as in 2014.

Election officials said the turnout figures could go slightly up as data was still being collected from some of the remote polling stations.

While the campaign for the third phase of polling was intense, the voting passed off peacefully with no major incident reported from anywhere.