Jammu and Kashmir Election Office has roped in the private FM radio stations to issue a public appeal for the voters to vote freely in the by elections in Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies on April 9 and 12 respectively.
Amid separatists' poll boycott campaign, the Election Department has launched publicity blitzkrieg to convince people to exercise their franchise in the by-elections without falling prey to the threats or the inducements.
Jammu and Kashmir Election Office has roped in the private FM radio stations to issue a public appeal for the voters to vote freely in the by elections in Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies on April 9 and 12 respectively.
"It is part of our awareness programme. We have to inform the voters to cast their votes. It is a part of our scheme to make people aware of their rights," Raman Kumar Keser, joint chief electoral officer, Jammu and Kashmir, told DNA.
The appeals on the FM radio stations have come against the backdrop of militant threats and separatists asking people to stay away from the polls in south and central Kashmir.
Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), that consists of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik who spearheaded last year's unrest, has urged people to stay away from the upcoming elections in order to send a clear message to the international community that "they want nothing less than freedom".
A group of masked youth on Friday shouted slogans for election boycott at Jamia Masjid area in old Srinagar city.
Police have already launched a crackdown against the separatists by placing Geelani and Farooq under house detention. JKLF leader Mohommad Yasin Malik has been arrested and lodged in Srinagar central jail.
"Dozens of youth from different localities were arrested and were taken to police stations. The administration is creating a scare so that people are left with no option but to cast vote," said a spokesman of hard-line Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Past records, however, have shown that the election boycott calls have not left any mark with people coming in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
Last year, around 34 per cent people cast their vote in the by-elections for Anantnag assembly constituency despite the boycott calls. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti won the seat convincingly. Despite boycott calls and militant threats, the turnout in the five phase assembly polls in November-December 2014 broke the 27-year-old record with 65.9 per cent people casting their vote.
Anantnag parliamentary seat which fell vacant after Mehbooba Mufti became the Chief Minister, is going to polls on April 12.
Srinagar parliamentary seat, which fell vacant after former PDP leader Tariq Hamid Karra quit in protest against the civilian killings of summer unrest of 2016, comprise of 15 assembly constituencies spanning over three districts of central Kashmir.
Around 27 lakh voters, including 75,000 migrant voters, will exercise their franchise during the by-elections in two parliamentary seats of Srinagar and Anantnag.
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