While both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir threw up clear-cut verdicts, it is the latter that stands out.
J&K had incident-free polling, free of boycott calls and intimidation, and registered a double-digit voter turnout across seats, including in the Valley and border districts. Also, no repoll was held – unthinkable in 2019 when ECI’s expert team pointed to security considerations which precluded any poll right until 2024.
There was a reason: The message from the 2017 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat saw the lowest turnout in 30 years – a mere 7% (2% at some booths) — with eight dead during voting. Anantnag bypoll remained ever-pending.
In the run-up to the expected announcement of assembly polls, more than a hundred infiltrators made their way in the border areas and staged terror attacks in Jammu region, raising questions over poll security and safety. Yet, J&K went to polls in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1.
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This was unusual given that the Election Commission of India traditionally relied on a five-to-seven-phase poll in the erstwhile state and moved from one division to the other in view of security imperatives.
That this poll was violence free – against 87 incidents in the five-phase poll days of 2014, is testimony to the new tone, tenor and conduct of 2024 assembly polls which saw even former separatists enter the election arena.
Each phase reported a reasonably robust turnout and wrapped up with a total 67.9% turnout – similar to what is often observed across other parts of India. While Srinagar constituencies reported a lower turnout and indicate need for political and poll panel outreach, it still is a much better show than seen in the previous polls.
Apart from the voters’ will to make their voice heard, this could not have been achieved without the effort put in by the election machinery. It ranged from ensuring a robust, reliable electoral roll to a successful Lok Sabha election run and most importantly the unequivocal message that came from ECI – to ensure an equal playing field to all parties to campaign freely, ensure adequate security cover to all candidates, cut down unnecessary preventive detention and make the security apparatus unobtrusive.