72% migrant votes went to AP, PC in Kashmir: ECI data
An analysis of the Form 20 results sheets of the three parliamentary constituencies of Kashmir – Anantnag-Rajouri, Baramulla and Srinagar- revealed that 72% of the migrant votes polled in special booths set up in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi were cast for AP and PC
In the just concluded Lok Sabha polls in Kashmir, majority of the migrant votes were cast in favour of small parties like Apni Party (AP) and People’s Conference (PC), believed to be close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reveals the data released by the Election Commission of India.
An analysis of the Form 20 results sheets of the three parliamentary constituencies of Kashmir – Anantnag-Rajouri, Baramulla and Srinagar- revealed that 72% of the migrant votes polled in special booths set up in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi were cast for AP and PC. Of the total 23,515 polled migrant votes, as many as 16,968 were in favour of AP and PC collectively.
Many of these are those Kashmir pandits who migrated from Kashmir valley in 1990s and are living in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi.
Apni Party, led by former PDP leader Altaf Bukhari, was formed in March 2020 soon after revocation of Article 370 in August 2019 while Sajad Lone, a former separatist from north Kashmir, switched sides in 2009 and joined pro-India politics by fighting Parliamentary elections, a first separatist to do so in Kashmir after militancy erupted in the valley in 1989.
Individually, in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, out of the 10,349 migrant EVM votes polled, 67% or 6,947 were in favour of AP candidate Zafar Manhas. NC’s Mian Altaf, who won the seat by securing 5.21 lakh votes managed to get just 936 migrant votes (9%). PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had received 441 votes (4.2%).
In the north Kashmir’s Baramulla seat, the result sheet showed 6,455 migrant EVM votes polled of which 5,047 (or 78%) were acquired by PC chairperson Sajad Lone. NC vice president and candidate from Baramulla, Omar Abdullah had gotten 645 (10%) of the votes. The Baramulla seat was won by jailed Independent candidate Engineer Abdul Rashid who managed to get just 66 migrant votes of the total 4,72,481 votes he had secured.
In the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, the special polling stations for the purpose recorded a total of 6,711 migrant EVM votes out of which 4,974 or 74% were cast in favour of Srinagar AP candidate Mohammad Ashraf Mir. NC leader Ruhullah Mehdi, who won the seat by securing 3.56 lakh votes, has gotten 635 of these votes while PDP leader Waheed Para managed to get 112 votes.
