Constituency remapping makes battle for Kulgam interesting

Kulgam, Sep 18: Junaid Ahmad, 29, an engineering graduate walks out of the polling station to cast his vote for the first time at a polling station in H S Bugh village.

Ahmad said that in the earlier assembly elections, he was least interested in the electoral process and did not even know the names of contesting candidates.

“This time around, I turned out to vote for a candidate whose track record for development in the Kulgam constituency is for everyone to see,” he said.

The entire Yaripora tehsil which was earlier part of erstwhile Hom Shalibugh constituency was merged with the Kulgam segment following the delimitation exercise in the year 2022.

Like Ahmad there were other voters who echoed his views, arguing that their area was always neglected on the developmental front.

“The health and education facilities here are below par and unemployment is at its peak. So, we are now looking for a candidate who has done a lot in his constituency,” said Saquib Shafi, 30, a postgraduate.

Yaripora with a municipal committee and 35 revenue villages surrounding it has more than 30,000 votes.

Previously, the people in the area used to stay away from voting.

However, this time around people in large numbers flocked to the polling stations.

At Yaripora, a polling station with 1219 total voters, 410 votes had been cast by 12.30 noon only.

The numbers went up as the day progressed.

By the close of the day, around 15,000 votes were polled in the area which is quite high compared to the earlier trend.

The majority of the voters attributed the high voter turnout in the area to a particular candidate.

“Yes, people here were earlier reluctant to visit polling booths as they didn’t find an able leader. But, now they have every reason to participate in the polling in large numbers,” Danish Mehraj, 28, said.

Others cited the presence of independent candidates as the reason for the surge in voting percentage.

“People here this time have the option to choose their candidates and hence they voted for their favourite ones,” said an elderly villager, Muhammad Subhan.

Ten candidates are in the fray from this constituency whose fate was sealed on Wednesday.