Voters rush togreet ‘Baji’

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Kehribal (Anantnag), June 22

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today visited a number of polling stations in and around Kehribal village on the outskirts of Anantnag town to have a feel of the election process during the Assembly byelection.

She was greeted mostly by rural womenfolk outside the polling stations, for many of whom it was a rare opportunity to be so close to the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. During her brief entry to the polling stations as the PDP candidate, many elderly women, who had turned up in colourful traditional attires, were overwhelmed by her presence. They hugged and greeted her.

Mehbooba maintained her sober looks while the women urged her to visit them again after the elections were over — in a clear message to fulfill their demands. Mehbooba is popularly known as “Baji” (elder sister) like Mamta Banerjee as “Didi” or Jayalalithaa as “Amma”. There were voices like “Baji aayee…” as she, having a high security cover, made her way to the polling stations. Mehbooba was accompanied by her brother, Mufti Tasaduq, during the visit, which she started early after an overnight stay in their home district.

The Chief Minister particularly made it to this area that forms the major rural chunk of the Anantnag constituency, which mostly covers the urban area of the district headquarters. These villages are nestled between two other constituencies of Shangus on the one side and Bijbehara on the other, both in Anantnag district.

Nearly 5,000 voters from these hamlets of Kehribal-Ranbirpora cluster and Wantrag around Rampora comprise the major rural chunk of the constituency.