LS poll: Campaigning ends in Baramulla seat, polling on Apr 11
Baramulla, Apr 9 (UNI) Campaigning, which remained by and large peaceful despite threat perception, came to an end on Tuesday evening in Baramulla Parliamentary constituency, which is going to polls on April 11 in the first phase in Kashmir valley.
Meanwhile, as dozens of far-flung and remote villages are within the five km range of the Line of Control (LoC), the authorities have made a 'plan B' to shift polling stations, in the event of any ceasefire violation from across the border, particularly in Uri sector, where one person was killed and several houses were damaged in Pak shelling last month.
The seat was held by Muzaffar Hussain Baigh of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2014.
Though there are 10 candidates seeking mandate from the constituency spread over Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts in north Kashmir, the main contest would be between the National Conference (NC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Congress, Peoples Conference (PC) and Er Sheikh Abdul Rashid, supported by IAS-officer-turned politician Shah Faesal.
BJP, which has very little base in the constituency, has also put up their candidate.
The canvassing witnessed senior leaders of different political parties attracting good crowd during their rallies and public meetings in the constituency, amidst unprecedented security arrangements.
The poll campaigns remained confined to issues like Article 370, Article 35 A and closure of Srinagar-Jammu national highway twice in a week as a precautionary measure, to allow free and secure movement of security force convoy.
However, the PDP, NC and PC blamed each other for the prevailing situation. They alleged each other to have helped BJP to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir.
Surprisingly, all the three parties were opposing BJP and also blamed each other to have helped the saffron party to gain ground in the state, particularly in Kashmir valley.
NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah and vice president Omar Abdullah, while campaigning in favour of party candidate Mohammad Akbar Lone from the constituency, had challenged BJP to scrape the Article 370 and 35 A, saying this will be the end of relations between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India.
Abdullah further said that once NC is elected to power, it will rename the Chief Minister as Wazir-e-Azam and Governor as Sadar-e-Reyasat.
NC candidate Lone, during his campaigning, attracted criticism from BJP and national media for his alleged pro-Pakistani remarks. Mr Lone had also allegedly raised pro-Pak slogans in the state Assembly last year.
PDP also raised similar issues during the campaigning in the constituency, seeking vote for party candidate Abdul Qayoom Wani, former president of the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC), who resigned from the government job, to join PDP.
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