‘Changing situation in Kashmir’: Displaced Kashmiri Pandit on voting after 32 years

Anantnag, May 25: Displaced Kashmiri Pandit voter Veer Saraf, who came to cast his vote expressed his happiness to cast his vote after 32 years and said that the changing situation in Kashmir forced him to come and vote in Kashmir.
Voting is going on in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat of Jammu and Kashmir. People are reaching the polling booth in large numbers to cast their votes.
After casting his vote at a polling booth in Anantnag, Saraf told ANI, “I cast my vote in Kashmir after 32 years. I am from a minority community who usually do not visit here. But the changing situation in Kashmir in the last ten years forced us to come and cast our vote in Kashmir”.
Replying to a query, he said, “It is a moment of happiness to cast your vote at your motherland as it is the most sacred place. We worship our motherland”.
Earlier, the Election Commission had revised the date of polling in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency from May 7 to May 25 due to various issues about “logistics, communication and natural barriers of connectivity.”
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is in the electoral fray for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat against National Conference (NC) candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad and Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party.
On being asked about the importance of his vote, Saraf said, “I have cast this vote for the contentment of my soul”.
He said that every Kashmiri pandit didn’t cast his vote here. “Some of my friends had come along with me to exercise their right. They prefer to cast their vote in Kashmir and not in Jammu”.
Polling has already been held on the seats of Jammu, Baramulla, Srinagar and Udhampur.
This is the first general election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019,
In the fifth phase, the Baramulla parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir recorded a voter turnout of 55.79 per cent. As per the ECI, this is the highest voter turnout recorded in the constituency in the last 8 Lok Sabha elections in 35 years.
Prior to this, the Srinagar constituency also recorded its highest voter turnout since 199 with over 38 per cent.
The voting in Jammu and Kashmir is being held in five phases.
The counting of votes for all Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere has been scheduled for June 4.
ANI