J&K polls: Ghulam Nabi Azad among early voters, urges people to exercise franchise

Jammu, Oct 1 (PTI) Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday appealed to voters to exercise their franchise in the third and last phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.

Azad, who was among the early voters here, also said that unemployment is the biggest issue in the union territory but it has not been given due attention by both regional and national parties.

The polling for the third phase of the Jammu and Kashmir elections began at 7 am across 40 assembly segments in seven districts – Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua and Samba in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir. It will end at 6 pm.

Azad cast his vote at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Gandhi Nagar in the first hour of polling.

“Every voter, whether male or female, elderly or young, should come out to vote because this election is happening after a long gap of 10 years… it is their choice who they want to vote for, which party or candidate, … but they should vote,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

Asked about West Pakistani refugees, Valmikis and the Gorkha community who are eligible to vote in the assembly elections for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Azad said some issues have been there since 1947 and they were always used by different parties for their political gains.

“There are current issues like statehood, Article 35A and growing unemployment, which is the biggest problem and is linked to every religion and the future of the youth,” he said.

No regional or national party has focused on the issue of unemployment as they should have during campaigning.

On the possibility of the DPAP or someone else emerging as the kingmaker after the elections, Azad said that in a democracy, people are the real fountainheads and not the parties.

“It is the people who vote you to power and let us leave it to the voters and see who they want to hand over the power to,” he said.