Government Engineered The Poor Voter Turnout

The Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency is always in the news during the election season, largely because of the threat of militancy.

- Tariq Bhat

It was in the news this time, too, by registering only 8.76 per cent voter turnout, the lowest in the country, and also because of the stunning upset of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party. Anantnag chose National Conference nominee Hasnain Masoodi, a retired judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, as its MP. Masoodi polled 40,180 votes, while state Congress chief G.A. Mir got 33,504 votes and Mehbooba 30,524 votes.

Masoodi started his career as a munsif and was elevated as additional judge of the High Court in 2009. He shot to fame in 2015 after he ruled that Article 370, which guarantees the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, has attained permanency in the Constitution. The National Conference hopes to leverage his victory to shore up its position in south Kashmir, a stronghold of the PDP. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Masoodi shared his vision for Kashmir and what he intends to achieve as a parliamentarian. Excerpts:

Less than 10 per cent of the voters turned up to vote in Anantnag.

It was a state-engineered boycott. People did not come out to vote because of the clubbing of the polling booths. Some polling booths were shifted a day before voting, without informing people. Shifting does not happen after the booths are notified. Second, such shifting needs the consent of the chief electoral officer. That did not happen. The polling booth at Nallah Awoora in Pahalgam was moved to a place which was eight kilometres from the nearest habitation. In Shopian, polling booths were shifted from areas where people generally vote in higher numbers to areas that are known for boycott. The administration ensured that voters had to travel four to five kilometres to cast their votes. And en route, they were harassed, abused and heckled.