With over half a million troops stationed in India-administered Kashmir – nearly the size of US state Florida – we see how elections are conducted in the bitterly contested Himalayan region
As the morning sun shone over Ganderbal's mustard fields and sleepy villages, some of the first few residents milling around a polling station in this central Kashmir district included five workers of a pro-India political party – all middle-aged men – and an uneasy 18-year-old.
Voters queue outside a polling station in Kangan area of Ganderbal district. Most of them say they are voting to protect Article 370 of Indian constitution that bars Indians from buying land in India-administered Kashmir. The first and second phase of parliamentary elections were held on April 11 and April 18 in India-administered Kashmir, where six parliamentary seats are up for grabs.
The voter turnout in some districts with a sizeable Hindu and Muslim population was high, however. For instance in Udhampur constituency, a southern mountainous belt, the turnout was over 70 percent. Soon after, the Modi-led government moved against a non-violent pro-independence group Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, detaining its top leadership.
"If 370 goes, we all will die," says Zubair Ahmed of Kathivangath village in Ganderbal's Kangan area. With a slowing economy, slugging job growth, farmers’ distress and other policy failures, the BJP is facing a moment of reckoning. Compared to previous elections, the party's poll promise has deviated from economy and employment generation and rather gravitated towards a polarising rhetoric.
They claim to be contesting the election for six parliamentary seats mainly to deny the BJP a second chance to rule, despite overwhelming public anger against them as well inside Kashmir.
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