Civic Polls of Jammu and Kashmir: Updates

Ipseeta Das (Delhi) - Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday once again proves that any urban or local elections will never be conducted with ease but they would make sure each election would end up being the most gruesome!!

Having a vile situation all through the election is nothing new for the government of this conflict-ridden state "Jammu and Kashmir". As this time the regional parties like 'People's Democratic Party' and 'National Conference' made a choice of staying away from the polls; BJP had to make some strenuous efforts to get the votes.

It was a bombshell for NC when elections were around the corner and many politicians of National Congress along with spokesperson Junaid Mattoo suddenly left the party for the polls. According to the political analysts, this sudden move was NC's plan to save themselves from militants but the party boycotted the elections.

On 5^th of October, two workers of National Congress namely Nazir Ahmad and Mushtaq Ahmad were attacked by gun because of backing away the elections. Both of the NC workers were very close to local MLA of Habbakadal Shamima Firdous. The Firdous later blamed the BJP and RSS for killing their men.

The mainstream parties and separatists widespread the first phase of elections with many threats and boycotts. There was only 8% of turnout in the Kashmir valley which showed how much the local people fear of being in a conflict-ridden state. While the elections were on one of the resident said, " It is just another bandh. Elections are just a place where we would go with a fear of 'being killed'. The government never provided any high level security."

In the second phase of elections, the turnout dropped to only 3% after several changes in the duration of polls. This turnout is expected to go down further as on Friday night one of the assistant of police was shoot by the militants.

BJP is hoping to take an advantage of NC-PDP boycott by getting more votes in the third phase of elections. About 350 candidates of BJP are contesting in 600 municipal wards in Kashmir and won 60 of them without any opposition. Now the entire country is eager to know what will happen in the third phase of the election.