Amid war of words between the Bharatiya Janta Party and top brass of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) whether the electorate in Jammu and Kashmir have supported or rejected Abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of the erstwhile State in the recently concluded District Development Council polls statistics released by the office of State Election Commission throw a more clearer picture.
According to the data sheet released by the State Election Commission in Jammu and Kashmir, “A total number of 28,55.509 votes were polled and out of this a little over 12 pervcent voters, which means 3.64 lakh voters elected 138 candidates across 10 districts of Kashmir valley while 32.08 percent voters i.e 9.16 lakh voters from Jammu region elected 140 representatives in the eight phase long maiden DDC polls.
If we look at the picture at the district level these statistics reveal, “an average number of 444 voters across Srinagar district stepped out of their homes to elect their representative while in Jammu district more than 13,000 voters elected their favorite candidate”.
It means the claims made by the Kashmir based leaders of National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party clearly mean out of an electorate size of 28,55,509 lakh voters only 3.64 lakh voters stood behind them across Kashmir valley.
The situation remained the same in the militancy infested districts of Shopian and Pulwama in South Kashmir. Here an average number of 725 and 785 voters participated in the democratic process of electing their own representative. On the other hand in Jammu region, Rajouri and Kathua districts figured in the list of districts where the highest number of voters turned up to elect their representatives. In Rajouri, an average number of 9113 voters exercised their right to franchise to elect their candidate while in Kathua district 7532 voters elected their representative.
According to the election data released by the office of the state election commission, a total number of 2855509 votes were counted at the end of the eight phase long polling which was spread over a period of three weeks.
Out of this the winning candidates across 10 districts of Kashmir valley polled a total number of 3.64 lakh votes i.e 12.76 per cent votes.
On the other hand, 9.16 lakh votes were polled in support of winning candidates across Jammu province on 140 seats. This comes around 32.08 percent of the total votes polled.
If we look at the vote share garnered by the major political parties BJP figured on top of the chart. The party secured the highest number of 708714 votes (24.82 percent) of the total votes polled.
On the other hand, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party, which won 67 seats, 25 from Jammu and 42 from Kashmir region polled 470099 votes i.e 16.46 percent of the total votes polled. It was followed by the Congress party which polled 394575 votes i.e 13.82 percent.
Another important constituent of the PAGD, JKPDP polled 113175 votes which is 3.96 percent of the total votes polled.
The Jammu and Kashmir APNI party, won 12 seats, three from Jammu region and 9 from Kashmir valley, securing 5.30 percent votes and garnered 151331 total votes.
Further analysis of the poll data reveals another interesting aspect of the DDC polls.
To elect each BJP candidate an average number of 9449 voters exercised their right to vote, a JKNC candidate was supported by an average number of 7016 voters, 4191 voters elected each PDP candidate while the highest number of 15175 voters elected each Congress candidate in these polls.