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POLLS 2008: JAMMU & KASHMIR
Simplicity rules in Poonch
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Poonch, November 14
The campaign ends tomorrow in Poonch district, which goes to polls on November 17, and the parties are busy giving final touches to their political plans.

These outfits are targeting even those who can’t come to rallies; hence ‘nukkad’ meetings and door-to-door campaign are the order of the day in three Assembly constituencies --- Poonch-Haveli, Mendhar and Surankote. Besides, the leaders along with workers brave threat from militants by campaigning late into the night, even in rural pockets where security remains a cause of concern.

“I start at 6 am and address more than 12 public meetings before going door to door in the night hours,” says sitting Surankote MLA and NC candidate Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari, while taking a round near Seri Chauhana at around 10 pm. The area was once a hot bed of militancy and the terror factor looms large till date.

“In this scattered and low density population, people expect to be requested for their votes in person. So, after I address public meetings, I am also personally meeting voters in the hinterland along with my supporters from the area,” he says.

Besides banners and posters, the Congress campaign uses rhymes and slogans to reach out to voters for garnering support for senior Congress leader and former MP Choudhary Muhammad Aslam, who is also a prominent Gujjar leader in the areas like Bufliaz, Chandimarh and Surankote town.

In the same constituency with predominantly Muslim voters, BJP candidate Abdul Aziz Bhat uses a hired small passenger vehicle fitted with loud speaker to address the voters. He stops at every habitation along the road in Surankote and starts giving speeches even if there are no listeners. The candidates in Poonch-Haveli and Mendhar too have put in their hearts into the campaign before it ends.