NC treading on sticky wicket in Anantnag

Beg’s PDP rival Peer Mohammad Hussain,a former minister,is banking on the popularity of the party in south Kashmir. Leaving nothing to chance,PDP President Mehbooba Mufti and other top leaders of the party are addressing public meetings in the nook and cranny of the constituency to ensure Hussain’s victory.

On the other hand,National Conference started canvassing for votes only on Monday in the constituency that will witness polling on April 30.

The main reason for the delay was that NC’s leaders Farooq Abdullah and chief minister Omar Abdullah were engaged in parleys with Congress over seat sharing. The party had made a futile attempt to let the Congress contest from Anantnag. NC leadership especially the chief minister has openly expressed concern that his party was losing ground in south Kashmir even as PDP had made inroads into other parts of the Valley.

In an effort to regain ground in south Kashmir and boost the morale of the workers in the region,the party has put Beg in the fray.

NC’s think-tank is of the opinion that this is a time when the party can get even with PDP,as the rival candidate is considered weak.

In the 2004 Parliamentary polls,PDP President Mufti won the seat and incidentally the nearest rival then was also Mehboob Beg. Mehbooba won by a margin of 38,938 votes. While she polled 74,436 votes,Beg could muster only 35,498 votes. The total poll percentage was recorded at 15.04.

Mehbooba,who is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly after she resigned from Parliament consequent to her election to the assembly from Wachi constituency,asserted that her party would have no difficulty in retaining the seat.

Asked why a relatively weak candidate has been fielded from the constituency this time,she said the candidate does not matter the party has massive support in the constituency.

NC President Farooq Abdullah said his party has not put up Beg for losing. Beg has been fielded to win the seat.

Anantnag Parliamentary constituency was represented by Mohammad Shafi Qureshi for three consecutive terms. In 1967,he won the seat on congress ticket but in 1971 midterm polls he won on NC ticket. However,In 1977,he won on Congress ticket.

The winning spree of Qureshi was stopped by NC in the 1980 Parliamentary elections as its candidate Ghulam Rasool Kochak was returned to the Lok Sabha. In 1984,the seat was won by Begum Akbar Jahan of NC. In 1989 General Election,P L Handoo retained the seat for NC.

However,the seat favoured Mohammad Maqbool Dar in 1996 on JD ticket. In 1998,the seat was won by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on congress ticket,while in 1999,the constituency went to NC’s Ali Mohammad Naik.

There are 11,65,951 voters in the constituency which is the highest among the four Parliamentary constituencies of Kashmir valley (Srinagar,Baramulla and Ladakh being the other three). The total voters also include 377 service electors.

Out of the total registered voters,6,11,958 are men and 5,53,993 women.

As many as 1,485 polling stations,spread across 16 segments of Anantnag Lok Sabha seat,will be set up to facilitate voters. These include 1,257 main and 228 auxiliary polling stations.

Political observers blame the lack of enthusiasm in electioneering on election fatigue as the Lok Sabha polls are being held in the State within months of the State Assembly elections.

“One cannot expect people to turn out in large numbers for rallies within three months,” they said.

They said there were other factors including farmers engaged in preparing fields and orchardists also responsible for the low key poll activity. The Assembly elections have a direct bearing on the people as it deals with local issues like water,power,roads and employment.

The Lok Sabha polls are not that significant in a State like Jammu and Kashmir which has just six seats in the lower House of Parliament,they added.

They are of the opinion that the political parties are likely to focus their strengths in the respective Parliamentary constituencies only a week or 10 days ahead of the polling days.

“This was a successful strategy of contesting candidates in the Assembly elections last year which was also a lesser security risk”,a political analyst said.

The same strategy is likely to be adopted for the coming elections as well in view of the heightened security threat to the poll process following infiltration attempts along the Line of Control,they said.