Owais Gul
Srinagar: People of Qamarwari have stayed away from polling booths here during the second phase of Municipal elections, commenced from October 08.
This reporter searched for the polling booth at Qamarwari for at least half an hour but nobody had any knowledge about the polling stations. People seemed dejected from the political system of state, hence stayed away from casting their ballots.
Interestingly, the policemen deployed for election duty at Qamarwari also feigned ignorance about the candidates and polling centres, saying that elections are going on but they don’t know where the polling station is located.
Similarly, people in the area were either sitting on their shops or buying essentials for their families and remained absolute disconnect from the elections.
Talking to this reporter, maximum number of locals expressed dismay over the ongoing electoral process, saying that they don’t have any interest in it.
Asked about the location of polling stations, Muhammad Ayoub, an elderly person said that he has no knowledge about it. “I even don’t know who is contesting in the elections and where from he is,” he added.
Ayoub added though governor led administration announced the polls, locals are quite unaware about the identity of the candidates who are contesting. “We even don’t know where people have to go to cast their ballots,” he said.
The other locals including the shopkeepers also feigned ignorance about the location of polling stations as well as the candidates, saying that the forces have been deployed in the area but the location of the polling station is unidentified to them. “May be some people had gone to cast their ballots but they don’t know where the polling booths are,” they added.
Pertinently, the two regional parties including National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have boycotted the elections, citing political and security situation in Kashmir and asked Government of India and state government to clear the air over Article 35-A.
Notably, Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik had also called for a complete boycott of the electoral process and termed it as a tool to hoodwink international community regarding political situation in Kashmir.
They had also called for a complete shutdown in poll bound areas today.
The ULB elections that will be conducted in four phases commenced on Monday and is scheduled to culminate on October 16.
