Sopore: This is the hometown of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is a strong advocate of "azadi" in Kashmir valley. Voting will take place in Sopore in the third phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly along with 15 other seats but the constituency is unlikely to see large queues at polling stations. Geelani has been giving election boycott calls for the last several years arguing that India has been holding elections in the Valley using the power of gun and so such an exercise is not legitimate.
Traditionally election boycott calls by separatists has had a very strong support in Sopore which is in north Kashmir's Baramulla district. Even now it seems that very few people will come out to exercise their franchise on December 9 even though the first two phases of polling in the state have over 70 per cent voting.
The mood on the streets is defiant and anti-election with the people not even willing to talk about it. A group of shopkeepers near Sopore post office even warned the IBNLive team not to speak to the people about elections or else they could be in trouble. "There is no election mood here. Go from here quietly and don't even talk about elections. People will beat you up," they said.
While in other areas of the state including several militancy-hit constituencies electioneering has been going on in full swing, not a single banner, poster or campaign vehicle was visible in the entire town when IBNLive visited it.
Despite being beset with numerous problems like poor roads, only a few hours of electricity, lack of drainage, high unemployment, rampant use of drugs by youngsters, massive corruption and heavy presence of security forces, Sopore residents are firm on their stand in not taking part in the electoral process.
But there is a fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has not put up any candidate from Sopore, may benefit from Geelani's boycott call. The BJP has extended support to Sajjad Lone's Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference which has given the ticket to Mohammad Ramzan Baba from Sopore. Independent candidate Irshad Rasool Kar, whose father Ghulam Rasool Kar was a Congress leader, has announced that he would support the BJP if he wins from Sopore.
Just 1,052 voters pressed the EVM button during the 16th Lok Sabha elections earlier in 2014 with PDP leader and MP Muzaffar Hussain Beig bagging 535 votes. The National Conference got 262 votes, BJP 12 and only two voted in favour of Bahujan Samaj Party.
There are a total of 1,03,782 voters and 134 polling booths have been set up in the constituency. Sopore has also almost 2,200 migrant Kashmiri Pandit voters.
Although there are 21 candidates in Sopore but the main contest is between sitting MLA and National Conference's Haji Muhammad Ashraf Ganaie, Peoples Democratic Party's Nazir Ahmad Naiko, Congress's Abdul Rashid Dar and Baba.
The other 15 seats where voting will take place on December 9 are Uri, Rafiabad, Sangrama, Baramulla, Gulmarg, Pattan, Chadoora, Badgam, Beerwah, Khansahib, Chrar-I-Sharief, Tral, Pampore, Pulwama and Rajpora. Counting of votes for the 87-member Assembly will take place on December 23.
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