“People want to send a message”: Mehbooba Mufti on record voter turnout in Srinagar

Anantnag (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], May 14 (ANI): PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said that the record turnout witnessed in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency indicated that people of the Jammu and Kashmir wanted to send a message to the government at Centre in Delhi.

“Polling which was held for (Srinagar parliamentary constituency) on Monday was very good as people could not exercise their democratic right to vote in the last five years. People wanted to send a message to Delhi (government at the Centre). The decisions you took following the abrogation of article 370 related to their land, state subjects and jobs were not accepted to them,” Mufti told reporters here.

“I want to ask the Election Commission that polling was slowed down at places where people had gathered in large numbers apparently to vote for the PDP,” alleged the PDP leader.

On record polling in Srinagar, she said, “The kind of situation which is in Srinagar, Pulwama is also prevailing in Anantnag, Kulgam. They want to send their voice to the Parliament”.

The Srinagar constituency, which saw the first general election after the abrogation of Article 370 in J-K, recorded 37.99 per cent voting, according to the Information and PR Department, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This is the highest voter turnout in several decades.

The voter turnout in Srinagar was 40.94 per cent in 1996, 30.06 per cent in 1998, 11.93 per cent in 1999, 18.57 per cent in 2004, 25.55 per cent in 2009, 25.86 per cent in 2014 and 14.43 per cent in 2019.

Voting took place in the districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Pulwama, and partly in Budgam and Shopian districts at around 2,135 polling stations across the Srinagar parliamentary constituency with 6700 migrant voters exercising their voting rights.

In a post on X, the Information and PR Department, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir said, “The fourth phase of voting for General Elections to 18th Lok Sabha concluded peacefully here today with a remarkable 37.99 per cent voting in the districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Pulwama and Budgam and Shopian partly. Kangan assembly constituency topped with 58.80 per cent.”

The PR department further said there were no reports of boycotts at polling stations and no polling booth recorded zero per cent voting.

“The corresponding percentage for the last Lok Sabha election in 2019 was 14.43 per cent. This time, there was no boycott and no polling station recorded zero per cent or nil voting which speaks of people’s firm trust in the democratic system as imperative for their overall welfare”, maintained Chief Election Officer, Pandurang K Pole while presenting the details on today’s polling in the fourth phase of ongoing Lok Sabha Polls,” the post further reads.

The erstwhile state has been under central rule since the fall of the PDP-BJP government in June 2018, with the last assembly polls held in 2014. The voting in Jammu and Kashmir is being held in five phases.