E-Paper
Boycott call to impact Kashmir result
The separatists? call for poll boycott is likely to impact the outcome in all the three parliamentary seats in the Valley. Anantnag will go to the polls in the fourth phase.
The separatists’ call for poll boycott is likely to impact the outcome in all the three parliamentary seats in the Valley. Anantnag will go to the polls in the fourth phase.
The boycott call is likely to rob the National Conference of its cadre support in some of its bastions, especially rural Kashmir. In fact, NC president Omar Abdullah's re-election from Srinagar, which was perceived to be a cakewalk earlier, is expected to be very close in the final count.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed, while campaigning for the PDP, labelled the elections as a "battle of ideas". However, he desisted from taking on separatists up-front over the boycott call. The wily Mufti primarily directed his ire against arch rival Farooq Abdullah and his party National Conference (NC). His speeches focussed on the NC's 'non-governance' during its six-year rule and 'lack of political commitment'.
For a party that is just a few years old, the PDP leaders managed to attract appreciable crowds not only in their pockets of influence but even in the NC bastions.
Even as Dr Farooq Abdullah's whistle-stop campaign does appear to have revived the grassroots support, the PDP has succeeded in giving its candidates a run for their money.
The Lok Sabha elections in Kashmir have been different this time. The separatists were permitted to spread the poll-boycott message, though there were some selective, temporary arrests.
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah and JKLF president Yasin Malik along with their supporters addressed a large number of rallies all across the Valley during the poll campaign. Their common refrain was that elections in Kashmir were irrelevant and a ploy to deny the Kashmiris the right to determine their political future.
Political observers say the poll-boycott campaign would not have succeeded had the militants not unleashed a reign of terror. The militants appeared to be working in tandem with separatists to ensure a low voter turnout.
The campaign also saw a strange reversal of roles. NC leader Farooq Abdullah, who had tried his best to negate any kind of direct talk between separatists and the Centre pressed hard for enlarging the ongoing Advani-Hurriyat dialogue. He even offered to join their ranks if that paved a way for the resolution of the Kashmir imbroglio.
