Amid unprecedented security, Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency set to go to polls on Monday
SRINAGAR, MAY 12: Amid unprecedented security bandobast put in place, stage is set for the prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency which goes to polls on Monday.
A total of 17,47,810 lakh voters including 8,75,938 male and 8,71,808 female voters are eligible to cast vote at 2,135 polling stations set up across the Srinagar, Pulwama, Budgam, Ganderbal, and Shopian districts. The constituency also has 64 third gender electorates, apart from 11,682 persons with disability and 705 persons above the age of 100 years.
A total of 24 candidates are in the fray, but the main contest appears to be between National Conference’s Aga Syed Rohulla Mehdi, Peoples Democratic Party youth leader Waheed-Ur-Rehman Parra, and Apni Party’s Ashraf Mir.
The constituency is considered to be a National Conference bastion as the electorate here have elected its candidate 10 times of the 13 Lok Sabha elections held so far. Party president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah won the seat in 2019. Prior to him, the constituency was represented by his son Omar Abdullah and mother Akbar Jehan Abdullah.
Congress happens to be the only national party to ever win the Lok Sabha elections in Srinagar as its candidate G.M. Mir Magamiemerged victorious in the 1996 elections.
Other partes also made inroads in the area over the years and J&K PDP’s Tariq Hameed Karra won the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The election staff including Presiding Officers has been stationed in every polling station. In total, more than 8,500 polling staff, including reserves, will be deployed on duty on the polling day.
The voting will take place from 7.00 AM to 6.00 PM and before that, there will be a mock poll in the polling stations in the presence of the polling agents. Also, the voting will continue even after 6.00 PM, if the voter’s queue is still there in the Polling Station premises to exercise their right to vote.
There will be 20 polling booths managed by women (also called as pink polling stations), 18 polling booths manned by specially-abled persons, and 17 by youths.
All polling stations in phase 4 will have CCTV cameras for live webcasting to the control rooms established at the District and CEO offices. Few polling stations fall in communication shadow areas. Suitable alternate arrangements by providing Satellite Phones, Wireless sets, and Special Runners have been put in place around a few polling stations that fall in communication shadow areas.
A three-tier security arrangement has been formulated outside every polling station to prevent any attempt to sabotage the polling process.
The security forces will be also manning the roads and bylanes leading to the polling station to scuttle any mischievous attempt by the anti-national elements.
Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) V K Birdhi said that all security measures for the smooth conduct of the Lok Sabha elections for Srinagar Parliamentary constituency scheduled for tomorrow have already been completed.
“We have already formulated a comprehensive security arrangement for the polling stations, locations, distribution centres and strong rooms under the prescribed security guidelines of ECI for the Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency”, Birdhi told media in Srinagar on Sunday.
He said “A safe and secure environment has been established for the people so that they can come out to poll their franchise in a big way”.
He also highlighted the deployment of paramilitary forces, checkpoints, as well as Special Security District (SSD) and Field Security District (FSD) personnel.
Meanwhile, the polling staff along with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other poll materials were dispatched to their concerned polling stations under adequate security arrangements on Sunday. (With inputs from Agencies).
