The resumption of India’s election comes amid expectations that voters in Kashmir will voice their discontent with the political climate in the area under Narendra Modi’s administration.
The six-week election in India is scheduled to continue on Monday, with voters in Kashmir likely to express their displeasure with the significant changes implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration in the disputed territory.
Most people in India still think highly of Modi, and when the election is over early next month, it is generally predicted that his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win.
The people of Kashmir, who will be voting for the first time since the government’s hasty decision to place the area under New Delhi’s direct administration in 2019 and the severe security crackdown that followed it, are bitterly opposed.
Omar Abdullah, the previous chief minister, is running for re-chief minister of Kashmir through his National Conference party. “What we’re telling voters now is that you have to make your voice heard,” Abdullah stated.
“The point of view that we want people to send out is that what happened… is not acceptable to them,” he stated to AFP.
Since their independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have split Kashmir. Both nations engaged in two battles to dominate the Himalayan region. In the decades afterward, the fighting has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
Since the Indian side of the region was placed under direct administration five years ago, there has been less violence. This change was accompanied by the mass arrest of political leaders in the area and a months-long telecommunications blackout aimed at averting anticipated protests.
Modi’s administration has maintained that Kashmiris backed the decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status, saying doing so had provided “peace and development”.
However, for the first time since 1996, his party has not fielded any candidates in the Kashmir valley, and observers believe that if it had, the BJP would have been soundly trounced.
Historian and political commentator Sidiq Wahid told AFP last week that “they would lose, simple as that.”
Voters have been urged by the BJP to back smaller, recently established parties that have openly endorsed Modi’s agenda.
However, people are anticipated to support one of the two well-known political parties in Kashmir that are demanding the reversal of the Modi government’s reforms.
almost one billion voters
In order to reduce the enormous logistical strain of organizing the democratic exercise in the most populous country in the world, India conducts its election in seven parts over a period of six weeks.
The final round of voting in India is scheduled for June 1st, with results anticipated three days later. Over 968 million individuals are eligible to vote in this election.
Election commission estimates show that turnout has decreased considerably from the last national poll conducted in 2019.
The general belief that Modi will easily win a third term and the warmer-than-normal temperatures leading up to summer have been attributed by analysts.
More heat waves are expected in May, according to India’s weather service, and the poll commission established a taskforce last month to examine the effects of heat and humidity prior to each voting round.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
