Lok Sabha polls: A brief history of Anantnag, the constituency at the epicentre of J&K politics

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The Election Commission of India (EC) on March 10 announced that the polling in South Kashmir's Anantnag constituency will be held in three phases, reportedly a first for any constituency. According to the EC, the polls are being held in a staggered manner due to security concerns, and taking into consideration the present situation in the region.

However, Anantnag, vacated by Mehbooba Mufti in 2016 after she became the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), has repeatedly been at the centre of almost every political development in the history of the state.

For starters, the constituency has gone without a Member of Parliament (MP) for more than three years now. While the EC had announced a bypoll for the seat in 2017, violence during the Srinagar bypoll had made the commission postpone it, effectively making it the longest delayed bypoll since 1996.

This had invited a jibe from former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had called it the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) "abject failure" of handling things in Kashmir.

Experts and political observers have agreed that the failure to hold Anantnag bypolls, the low voter turnout in the region during the recent Panchayat elections, combined with constant violence in the region will sting in the eyes of the BJP. However, this is not the first time that the constituency has been at the epicentre of the politics and the cycle of violence in J&K.

In 1986, after the unlocking of the Babri Masjid gates, according to a report in The Caravan magazine, while the rest of J&K was peaceful, Anantnag erupted with violence. A stronghold of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, a former CM and Mehbooba Mufti's father, a number of Kashmiri Pandits were reportedly attacked in the district and the events came to be known as the Anantnag riots. The riots reportedly started the cycle for the dismissal of the then J&K Chief Minister GM Shah, the elections of 1987, which were allegedly rigged, and the subsequent violence.

The constituency is made up of four districts — Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama — the last of which was the site of a recent terrorist attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy that killed 40 security personnel. Each of the districts in the constituency, according to reports, is volatile and has been for the past many years. During the insurgency years, the region had witnessed a number of massacres, including in Chittisinghpura and Brakpora regions.

In 2016, the district witnessed the maximum number of deaths of civilians during the unrest that engulfed Kashmir Valley after Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani was gunned down. The region has been on tenterhooks ever since, and this was one of the reasons why elections are scheduled to be held in three phases in the region.

But even a three-phase election would be a "major security challenge", according to a senior police officer speaking to Indian Express. "We don't have to deal just with militancy but also ensure that there are no protests or civilian casualties during the elections," the official told the newspaper.

The 2014 parliamentary elections had recorded 28 percent voter turnout in the constituency, while the 2009 elections saw 27 percent turnout.

In district-wise polling, Anantnag district will go to polls on April 23, in the third phase of the elections. Kulgam would go to polls on April 29, in the fourth phase, while Shopian and Pulwama would go to polls on May 6, during the fifth phase.