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VALLEY

ing the division of Muslim vote bank in the outcome of the election to the polling. The election to the troubled
along sectarian and ethnic lines, like Anantnag parliamentary constitu- Anantnag constituency which was
Shia and Sunni and Gujjar, Pahari and ency. In 2014, Mufti won the seat by spread over three phases recorded an
Kashmiri respectively. defeating Congress’s candidate by a overall turnout of a meagre 8.76 per
The PDP and Congress have made margin of 12,000 votes. cent. In Srinagar constituency, it was a
their own calculations but they cur- little higher at around 15 percent and
rently enjoy little public confidence. Boycott factor in North Kashmir’s Baramulla con-
More so, in case of the PDP whose Lok stituency the turnout was reasonably
Sabha campaign was weighed down One important aspect of the Lok better at 35 percent. Cumulatively, the
by a strong anti-incumbency senti- Sabha election in J&K is the wide- turnout in the entire Valley is around
ment bordering on a mass rejection spread boycott of the exercise in 17 percent. And this effectively meant
of the party. Former Chief Minister Kashmir Valley. The election to three that more than 83 percent of peo-
and the PDP president Mehbooba parliament constituencies in the ple stayed away from the electoral
Mufti was reduced to a third position Valley witnessed low to moderate process.

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