J&K and Jharkhand Polls : Encouraging Second Phase, Again

By Deepak Parvatiyar

December 3, 2014

Boycott calls by Maoist insurgents in Jharkhand and encounter of three Pakistan supported terrorists in Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir failed to deter the voters during the second phase of polling on 2 December, 2014 held in both the states.

Security arrangements and People’s Participation Contributed to Large Turnout in Phase 2

Elections did take place under the shadow of the gun in both the states.

Jharkhand was on Red alert during the second phase of polling. Its borders were sealed to prevent cross border movement of Maoists from Chhatisgarh (where just on the poll-eve, they ambushed and killed 14 CRPF personnel), West Bengal and Odisha, and as many as 260 companies of central paramilitary forces (CPMF), besides the police force, were deployed in the state.

Jharkhand witnessed 66.38 percent voter turnout in 20 of the 81 assembly seats (as against 59.46 percent in 2009),  while J&K saw over 71 percent voting in the second phase of the five-phase elections in the two strife-torn states.

The 18 of the 87 constituencies in J&K included nine segments from militancy-infested districts of the Jammu region, including Poonch and Reasi. (While Reasi recorded 80 percent polling, Poonch registered 78 percent voting).

Similarly in Jharkhand, the 20 constituencies that went to poll in the second phase were spread across seven Maoists-hit districts. Repolling was also held peacefully at one booth in Garhwa seat and two in Chhatarpur constituency after incidents of boycott in three polling booths in the first phase of voting on November 25.

Voters Defied Fear in Both the States of J & K and Jharkhand

While in J&K, the killing of a sarpanch by militants in Shopian district on the eve of the second phase of polling failed to disrupt high turnout of voters, in Jharkhand, people ignored the Maoists’ boycott call to voted enthusiastically in spite of the fact that the second phase of elections coincided with an annual event of the Maoists’ military wing.

Both the states, in the process, defied the fear of any terror attack and turned out to seal the fate of 223 and 175 candidates in Jharkhand and J&K respectively. It included 35 women candidates in Jharkhand and one in J&K – Sakina Ittoo, who was the lone woman minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government in the state.

Future of Political Bigwigs at Stake in both J&K and Jharkhand

The electoral fortunes of several high-profile candidates are now sealed in the ballot box after the second phase of voting in both states. They include two former Jharkhand chief ministers – Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda, seven state ministers including three from Jharkhand and a former Kashmiri separatist leader.

Both Munda and Koda are candidates from mineral rich Kolhan division. While Munda is the BJP candidate from Kharsawan, Koda, who floated his own political outfit, contested from Manjhgaon. In 2009 Parliamentary elections, Koda was accused of having distributed 500 motorbikes and cash in Chaibasa parliamentary constituency to lure voters. Hence this time he was reportedly under the watch of Income Tax sleuths.

Other important candidates in the second phase from Jharkhand included Koda’s wife and sitting MLA Gita, who is contesting from Jagannathpur, and BJP national vice-president Raghubar Das, a former deputy chief minister in the state, and now a CM aspirant, from Jamshedpur (East).

In J&K, Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has generated much interest following former separatist Sajad Gani Lone’s candidature from there.  In 2009, Lone had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections.

The fate of J&K deputy Speaker and Jammu & Kashmir People’s Democratic Party leader Sartaj Madni too was sealed in the ballot box. He is seeking third consecutive term from Devsar Assembly segment. The other prominent faces in the fray in the second phase were ministers Saifullah Mir (Kupwara), Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan (Handwara) and Ittoo (Noorabad) – all National Conference, and Ajaz Ahmad Khan of the Congress from Gool Amas Assembly segment.

People Showed Preference for Ballot over Bullets

The high voter turnout in violence-hit Jharkhand and J&K shows the sustained preference of the people for ballot over bullets. Both had shown similar high percentage of voting in the last Assembly elections also, despite the successive boycott calls by insurgents who have always sought to disrupt the electoral process in both.

Unlike in Jharkhand – where the insurgents are home-bred naxals with their own political ambition (reports suggest despite giving a boycott call, the Maoists forced people to vote for a particular candidate), in J&K, it has been the Pak-sponsored terror groups who have always resorted to violence to disrupt elections.

Tuesday’s poll percentage in J&K, is higher than the figure of 61.04 per cent polling during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 68.79 per cent recorded during the 2008 Assembly elections.

Can High Turnout be construed as Defeat of Separatism?

The high turnout has buoyed the political climate in both the states, particularly in J&K, where the separatists are now finding excuses. Media reports quote separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq saying that the high turnout did not mean that the people had abandoned the “path of right to self-determination”. The National Conference leader and CM Omar Abdullah too warned that the high turnout of voters could not be construed to be the “defeat of separatism”.

Yet, it is obvious that the people in both the troubled state came out in large number ostensibly to vote for stability and change like in the first phase that had seen 61.92 per cent polling in Jharkhand and 71.28 per cent polling in J&K.

With three more phases of electioneering to go, it remains to be seen whether this trend of high voting continues in both the states despite the lurking shadow of the gun.