With a huge voter turnout in the seven phase polls to the state Assembly keying in their disfavour for the separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir, Some separatist leaders are beginning to view the voters inclination to cast their mandate despite boycott calls, as a pointer towards the ground they have lost in recent years.
The secessionist call to boycott polls was ignored through the over a month long election process as people braved biting cold to queue up outside poll stations to vote for a better quality of life.
With practicalities finally beginning to overtake emotional issues high on the voters minds were issues like unemployment, education, healthcare and civic amenities.
Over 55 percent of Kashmiris voted in the polls Wednesday and the seven-phase elections registered 63 percent polling overall.
Several separatist leaders are now questioning the wisdom of calling for a total poll boycott.
“It was a hasty decision. I believe it was not properly debated before it was taken,” said Aga Syed Hassan Badgami, senior Shia leader and a constituent of the moderate Hurriyat group, in a statement in Srinagar Thursday.
With people in the state ignoring boycott calls issued by them, separatist leaders still maintain that the high voter turnout has nothing to do with the resolution of the Kashmir problem.
The 20 percent polling in the eight constituencies of Srinagar district that went to the hustings on Wednesday were perhaps, the only saving grace for the separatists, as compared to over 55 percent voting everywhere else in the 46 constituencies of the Kashmir Valley.
Attempting to take the sting off the ignominy Mirwaiz Umer Farooq blames the separatists’ failure on a huge police presence that descended o the state ahead of the elections.
“The authorities arrested every separatist leader. They converted the valley into a fortified security force camp. It was not a democratic exercise at all. The international community must take cognizance of this fact,” said the Mirwaiz in a statement.
Most worried by the development is Syed Ali Geelani, the chairman of the Hurriyat group, as his boycott calls were ignored by cadres of the Jamaat-e-Islami, his parent organization.
With separatists still thrashing out the reasons behind the high voter turnout and the administration readying itself for the new government, people in Kashmir can only wish that those in power, this point on, refrain from policies that would yet again amount to playing in the hands of the separatists.
The secessionist call to boycott polls was ignored through the over a month long election process as people braved biting cold to queue up outside poll stations to vote for a better quality of life.
With practicalities finally beginning to overtake emotional issues high on the voters minds were issues like unemployment, education, healthcare and civic amenities.
Over 55 percent of Kashmiris voted in the polls Wednesday and the seven-phase elections registered 63 percent polling overall.
Several separatist leaders are now questioning the wisdom of calling for a total poll boycott.
“It was a hasty decision. I believe it was not properly debated before it was taken,” said Aga Syed Hassan Badgami, senior Shia leader and a constituent of the moderate Hurriyat group, in a statement in Srinagar Thursday.
With people in the state ignoring boycott calls issued by them, separatist leaders still maintain that the high voter turnout has nothing to do with the resolution of the Kashmir problem.
The 20 percent polling in the eight constituencies of Srinagar district that went to the hustings on Wednesday were perhaps, the only saving grace for the separatists, as compared to over 55 percent voting everywhere else in the 46 constituencies of the Kashmir Valley.
Attempting to take the sting off the ignominy Mirwaiz Umer Farooq blames the separatists’ failure on a huge police presence that descended o the state ahead of the elections.
“The authorities arrested every separatist leader. They converted the valley into a fortified security force camp. It was not a democratic exercise at all. The international community must take cognizance of this fact,” said the Mirwaiz in a statement.
Most worried by the development is Syed Ali Geelani, the chairman of the Hurriyat group, as his boycott calls were ignored by cadres of the Jamaat-e-Islami, his parent organization.
With separatists still thrashing out the reasons behind the high voter turnout and the administration readying itself for the new government, people in Kashmir can only wish that those in power, this point on, refrain from policies that would yet again amount to playing in the hands of the separatists.
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