India’s vote crosses halfway mark as Kashmir goes to polls
Srinagar, a city in the volatile region of Jammu and Kashmir, voted Monday in the fourth phase of India’s national elections, amid rising concerns about low voter turnout and the campaign’s increasingly acrimonious tenor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party isn’t contesting the Srinagar constituency or the two other seats from the Muslim-majority Kashmir region. It’s contesting the two seats in Hindu-majority Jammu.
Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government fulfilled a long-held campaign promise when it removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status in August 2019, months after the BJP won its second term. The move was widely condemned, with the region’s politicians jailed for months and communication blocked.
Voting was slow to kick off in Srinagar on Monday morning, with turnout estimated at about 15% as of 11 a.m., according to the Election Commission of India. The average for all voting districts going to the polls Monday was about 25% as of that time.
India seven-stage election, which began on April 19, will end on June 1. The votes will be counted on June 4.
The dip in voter turnout in the first three rounds of elections has raised concerns about the BJP’s support, with uncertainty spreading to financial markets. While there are no definite reasons for the slide, analysts and poll watchers ascribe the trend to several factors including an on-going heat wave across the country, the lack of an overarching emotive issue to rally voters, and also the underreporting of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have artificially inflated voter rolls.
Jammu and Kashmir has been federally governed for almost five years with state legislative elections only expected after the national polls.
The disputed region, which borders Pakistan and China, has seen decades of separatist violence and continues to be restive. One soldier was killed and four others injured when an Indian Air Force vehicle was attacked by militants last week.
Balloting will also take place in nine other states to select 96 lawmakers in this latest phase. Voters in 25 constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 17 in Telangana – key southern states – will choose their representatives.