Battle on Srinagar, Udhampur LS seats tomorrow

JAMMU: The campaigning for prestigious Srinagar and Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, going to the polls on April 18 along with 95 other constituencies across 13 states in the second phase of elections, came to an end Tuesday.

A high-decibel campaign that Udhampur Lok Sabha seat witnessed despite killings of a senior RSS leader and his security guard in a terror strike last week in Kishtwar, ended this evening, leaving the constituency to await a battle of ballots among four key contenders -- all Rajputs.

The April 18 voting, slated for over 16.85 lakh electorates of the constituency spread over 17 assembly segments across six districts -- Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua -- will decide the fate of 12 candidates.

Prominent among the contestants include four Rajputs: Union minister Jitendra Singh seeking reelection on a BJP ticket, Dogra dynasty scion Vikramaditya Singh fighting as a Congress candidate, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers party chairman Harsh Dev Singh.

The National Conference has extended support to the Congress on this seat, while the PDP has fielded no candidate to keep "secular votes" undivided.

Senior RSS leader Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO were killed by a terrorist in Kishtwar district hospital premises on April 9, prompting authorities to impose curfew in the town.

Barring the Kishtwar town which missed all pre-poll political activities due to the sensitive security situations following the twin killings, the rest of the constituency saw intense campaigning, marked by dozens of rallies, roadshows and public meetings till Tuesday evening.

The high points of campaigning included a DSS' road show in Kathua, a massive NPP rally in Udhampur and a long, disappointing wait by Congress supporters in another rally in Kathua to hear Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who missed it due to some unavoidable reasons.

The star campaigners from the BJP included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and general secretary Ram Madhav, who addressed a host of rallies to spur party candidate Jitendra Singh's poll fortunes.

To improve the Union minister's winnability, also pitched in cricketer-turned- politician Gautam Gambhir and stand-up comedian Raju Srivastava, who undertook door -to-door and street-corner canvassing, joining the BJP over-arching poll campaign machinery, which managed to put up an impressive show of over 100 rallies.

The star campaigner for Congress candidate Vikramiditya Singh included his father and former Sadre-e-Riyasat Karan Singh, his brother-in-law and party general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, besides several National Conference leaders.

To prop up the Dogra scion's winnability, Azad undertook a whirlwind tour of Chenab valley comprising Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban and sought to woo the sizable Gujjar population, which happen to be Muslims, to vote for the Congress. He, in return, promised the community exclusive privileges like free medical treatment, if the Congress is voted to power in the Centre.

"The campaigning in the constituency ended peacefully," said a senior election official.

He said as many as 2,710 polling stations have been set up across the constituency, which has a total 16,85,779 registered voters including 8,76,319 men, 7,89,105 women, 20,312 service voters (20,052 men and 260 women) besides 43 transgender electors.

The Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency happened to be the Congress bastion till 1996, when BJP's Chaman Lal Gupta, a former Union minister, managed to win it and retain it in 1998 and 1999 elections. He, however, lost it in 2004 to Choudhary Lal Singh of the Congress, who retained it 2009 as well.
Chaudhary Lal Singh, however, was denied ticket by the Congress in 2004 after which he joined the BJP and subsequently became a minister the state BJP-PDP government.

He founded the DSS last year, a few months after quitting the state government with another BJP minister for facing flak for taking part in a rally in support of an accused in the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district.

Lal Singh is also fighting elections from Jammu, making the fray for the two seats tough for the contestants.

In Vallley, Srinagar Lok Sabha seat comprises three districts -- Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal.
It was relatively a low key campaign here with only National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who is seeking a fourth term in the lower house of Parliament from here, making his presence felt as a candidate.

Abdullah is pitched against political greenhorns Aga Moshin of the PDP, Irfan Ansari of the People's Conference and Khalid Jehangir of the BJP.

An election official said there were only 46 rallies in Srinagar district, a city of over 12 lakh residents, during the campaign period.

"The campaign period remained by and large peaceful," he added.

He said 16 complaints of the violation of model code of conduct were received and the action was taken in nine of them.

The polling on Thursday will be keenly watched within and outside Kashmir as the constituency recorded an all-time low of 7.2 per cent voter turn out in 2017 bye-election, marred by violence on polling day that left nine persons dead and scores of others injured.

This will be first major election since a shawl weaver from Utlipora in Budgam district was used as a human shield by an army officer to save his men from a stone-pelting mob on the election day.

Stringent security measures have been put in place for the polling as additional security personnel have been deployed across the Srinagar constituency to ensure peaceful and smooth conduct of elections, the official said.

As many as 12,90,318 voters are eligible to cast their votes with authorities having set up 1,716 polling stations in the constituency.

For migrant voters of the constituency, 26 polling stations have been set up with 21 in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in New Delhi.

Farooq Abdullah is among 10 candidates in the fray and is seen as the front runner to enter the Lok Sabha for the fourth time from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

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