Mohammad Tahir:
BARAMULLA: As many as 13 lakh electors are to decide the fate of nine parliamentary candidates for 1-Baramulla Lok Sabha seat that was held on April 11 in three districts of north Kashmir including Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora.
Baramulla Parliamentary constituency is spread over 15 Assembly segments of three districts of north Kashmir including of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora are Karnah, Kupwara, Lolab, Handwara and Langate in district Kupwara.
Uri, Rafiabad, Sopore, Sangrama, Baramulla, Gulmarg and Pattan in Baramulla District while as Gurez, Bandipora and Sonawari fall in Bandipora district.
For smooth conduct of elections, authorities had established 1749 polling stations at 1387 locations.
Of the total 13, 08,541 electors, 6, 74,417 are males, 6, 34,083 females and 41 transgender. The constituency has 7953 Persons with Disability (PwD) voters and 157 marked as VVIP (Voter Verification and Information Programme) electors.
Likewise district Kupwara has 4, 38,285 electors including, 2, 25,259 males, 2, 13,016 females and 10 transgender. These include 1896 (PwD) and 19 VVIP marked voters, who will cast their votes at 578 polling stations set up at 484 locations.
Similarly, Baramulla District has 6, 36,459 electors including 3, 27,933 males, 308512 females, 14 transgender, 3484 (PwD) and 116 (VVIP marked electors). As many as 859 polling stations have been established at 692 locations.
While as Bandipora district has 2,33,797 electors- 1,21,225 males, 1,12,555 females, 17 transgenders, 2573 (PwD) and 22 VVIP marked electors. The authorities have set up 312 polling stations at 211 locations in the district.
There are 9 candidates that are in fray for Baramulla Constituency including Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir of INC, Mohammad Maqbool War of BJP, Jahangir Khan of JKNPP, Abdul Qayoom Wani of PDP, Mohammad Akbar Lone of NC, Raja Aijaz Ali of PC and independents, Javid Ahmad Qureshi, Syed Najeeb Shah Naqvi and Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid.
Pertinently in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Muzaffar Hussain Baig of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had won Baramulla Parliamentary seat by defeating his nearest rival Sharief Ud Din Shariq of National Conference by a margin of 29219 votes.
Political analysts believes that in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there will be a neck to neck fight between Peoples Conference Candidate, Raja Aijaz Ali Khan and Independent Candidate, and former MLA Langate, Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh.
“One cannot predict it earlier that who will wear the crown of Lok Sabha seat this time, but Engineer Rashid has left no stone unturned in motivating electors and he deserves every applaud adding, more the time will decide as the collective conscience has been sealed now in the ballot boxes, said analyst.
A group of youth believes that main contest is between NC, PDP, PC and Engineer Rashid that have support base across the length and breadth of the constituency that is spread over 15 assembly segments of north Kashmir.
However from past few days we have seen that Akbar Lone of NC and Qayoom Wani of PDP, Raja Ajaz Ali of PC and Independent candidate Engineer Rasheed are facing tough contest, importantly 2009 IAS topper turned politician and Chairman Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) Dr. Shah Faesal and Chairman Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) Ghulam Hassan Mir have also extended their political support to Engineer Rasheed and that will be a key factor and game changing situation in the LS election, said a group of youth.