Anantnag Lok Sabha seat will not be held for three years

Anantnag Lok Sabha seat will not be held for three years In Anantnag Lok Sabha seat of South Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti was vacant after becoming Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in April 2016. On March 11, 2019, when the Election Commission declared the Lok Sabha elections in the country, the Anantnag seat remained vacant. This has become the longest adjourned by-election in the country's history. This is because the government has not been able to contest elections due to poor security conditions in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in these three years.

The question is that the elections in the last three years, due to the bad situation, why was the government thinking that it will be done now. And if this election was done due to strict security arrangements, then what percentage of the voting percentage would be eligible to show

Before these answers can be found, it is important to know why an election in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency has not been done.

Anantnag Lok Sabha seat will not be held for three years

Why was the election not found?

Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency is divided into four districts, which include Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts. These four districts have emerged as the center of militancy for Kashmir for more than half a decade.

This is probably the reason that after three months of assuming the chair of Mehbooba Mufti, when the Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, died in an encounter with the security forces, then the entire area was surrounded by violence for nearly six months. More than 100 civilians were killed and thousands injured.

Political analyst and author Farman Ali Malik, located in South Kashmir, says in satyagraha, "There was no such reason to hold elections in such a way. Just worried that things would get better

Things were better-2017 had come. In April of that year, it was decided to go for the by-elections in Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha seats. Elections were held on Srinagar seat, but the voting percentage was only seven. And that too after the death of at least eight citizens in anti-election demonstrations.

A few days later, there was an election in Anantnag. But the violence in Srinagar fell on the feet of the government and the election of Anantnag was postponed. Then there was talk of doing elections in May, but it was postponed again. Mainstream leaders considered the government responsible for the coalition of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at that time. His argument was that it is like bowing in front of separatist organizations and Pakistan.

But if one glance was run on the condition, then they were not well. Shams Irfan, associate editor of Kashmir Life Magazine, who worked a lot on South Kashmir, says, "Civilian killings, whether in demonstrations or by unknown gunmen, threats and anti-election demonstrations by the militants - which were impossible to stop . Making an election in such an environment was a big challenge in itself.

Now, while the election has been declared on the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat along with the entire country, what can be expected that the elections will be held there?

What will be the elections?

In a conversation with Satyagraha, a top police officer says, "The elections will be there." They add further, 'If we had asked us to hold elections in 2017, we would have done it only then. But these are all political decisions. These officers like us were not heard. '

This official believes that this time the election will be easy with 2017 and there are concrete reasons. They say, 'Since then we have killed some of the top commanders of the militants. There has been a lot of difference in the recruitment of the militants and demonstrations (or stonebag) have been reduced on roads. In such a situation, it will be easy to make an election. '

Many people working on the ground also believe that the elections will be there. The thing to look at is whether people will come out to vote or not. According to Khalid Gul, who has been reporting to South Kashmir for the last 12 years, the elections will happen in some way, but the voting percentage will be very low

 "The government is no longer in a position to postpone the elections, because if this happened then it would be a direct sign that the government has lost control in Kashmir, which people in Delhi would never want." But they They also add that the election percentage will not exceed 10. Khalid says, 'down 5-6 percent down. is that all. There are circumstances and people's apathy towards the Lok Sabha elections is also there. '

Now whatever the percentage of the voting, at present the government has to face the challenge in the elections. Election Commission has taken another unprecedented decision for the elections. For the first time in the country, the Election Commission has declared the election in three phases in any Lok Sabha constituency. Or, say that there will be three separate days of polling in different districts of the region. The Election Commission has decided that polling in Anantnag district will be held on April 23, in Kulgam district on 29th April and in remaining two districts (Pulwama and Shopian) on May 6

Unprecedented decision

This decision was so unprecedented that when it was announced, the mainstream leaders in Kashmir were stunned. Former state chief minister Omar Abdullah said, "There has been some mistake in this announcement. The Election Commission has counted seven or eight seats in my state, but there are only six seats in total. "Other leaders also expressed surprise over this.

However, the confusion had been dispelled in the next few hours and relief was also done to the security officials. As it was the top police officer with whose satyagraha talked about this topic in detail. now 4 dicidet is very accurate, and also a great effort to minimize casualties. It will also make us easier to do in an election manner. "

Where on one hand these are the simple things that make it seem that the elections will be treated fairly. But there are also some obstacles on the other side which are difficult to ignore. The biggest hurdle is that after the announcement of the election, a phase of the killings has started again in Kashmir.