J&K troops out to vote again; separatists unimpressed

A TIME TO VOTE: Women wait outside a polling station in Lar, some 30 km north of Srinagar.

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Srinagar/Jammu: It was another vote for change, for a stab at normalcy after years spent under the shadow of the gun in the volatile hills of Jammu and Kashmir where people Sunday again defied a separatist boycott call to queue up outside polling booths in round two of the assembly elections.

After an impressive 64 per cent turnout in the first round of the seven phased elections last week, six of the state's 87 assembly constituencies went to the polls: two in the Muslim majority Kashmir valley and four in the Hindu dominated Jammu region.

The long queues pointed to a high voting percentage on Sunday as well.

By close of day at 1600 hrs IST, 45 per cent of voters had exercised their franchise in Ganderbal and 55 per cent in Kangan of the Kashmir Valley—with 22 candidates and an electorate of 137,560—where the exercise had got off to a sluggish start because of the morning chill.

It was significantly higher at 60 per cent in Jammu's four constituencies of Kalakot, Rajouri, Nowshera and Darhal, which have 353,457 voters and 59 candidates. All four constituencies are in the hilly district of Rajouri.

In a state that has so often resounded with the cries of 'azadi' and where separatist violence has claimed 40,000 lives in two decades, the sentiment on Sunday—as on November 17 during the first phase - was one of a longing for a better quality of life.

Issues of road connectivity, schools, water and electricity drew voters to the ballot box both in Kashmir and in Jammu -- that have been without an elected government since July.

"It is time to vote, the boycott would only damage our cause for development," Raufullah Lone, a retired teacher in Rajouri town, said as he watched young people rush to the polling booths.