Bandipora: A Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) candidate was injured when angry protesters attacked him with stones in this north Kashmir district.
Adil Ahmad Buhru, who is contesting from Ward-15 here, sustained minor injuries when some youth pelted stones at him near Dachigam polling booth this afternoon. Buhru was on his way to the booth to cast his vote.
“He has received minor injuries in a stone-pelting incident at Dachigam booth when he was on way to cast his vote,” sources said.
At 11:45 am, amid a complete valley wide shutdown, 15 percent voting was recording in Kupwara. In Budgam district, 642 votes were cast. In Srinagar, 1001 votes were recorded. In Baramulla, it was 618, Bandipora recorded 330. In Handwara, 732 votes were polled.
In Kagril, it was 3470 and in Leh, 3164.
Both the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, the two biggest regional political outfits have decided to boycott the elections as they have asked the Government of India to clear its stand on the issue of Article 35-A.
Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh recently appealed political parties in Jammu and Kashmir to participate in the upcoming Panchayat and local body polls.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) also decided not to participate in the polls keeping in view the prevailing situation in the valley.
State Secretary CPI(M) Ghulam Nabi Malik, in a statement said that despite majority of mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir deciding not to participate in these polls shows the arrogance of the BJP-led Central Government.
The Joint Resistance Leaders (JRL) while reiterating their call of ULB, Panchayat polls said that it is a “political gimmick to hoodwink international community”.
Congress, however decided to take part in the polls to keep ‘communal forces away.’
Moreover Sajad Lone’s Poeples Conference has also decided to take part in the upcoming civic polls.
The state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said that the regional political parties have boycotted the upcoming Municipal and Panchayat elections due to fear, and added that they have apprehensions that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National conference (NC) will field proxy candidates in the polls.
