Dara (Srinagar): It is the young versus the old generation in this remote area of Sonawar constituency where Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is locked in a multi-cornered contest.
Braving early morning chill and defying separatists' boycott call, the voters assembled at polling stations—most located in the picturesque Zabarwan hill range overlooking Dal Lake—much before the scheduled start of polling at 8 AM.
While most of the elderly voters were vocal in their support for the oldest political party of the state, National Conference, the younger generation is seeking a change.
“We still vote for the plough (symbol of National Conference). We have stood by this party through thick and thin and cannot change loyalties at this age,” 75-year-old Fateh Mohammad told PTI at Chak-e-Dara polling station.
For Mohammad, it does not matter that the roads in his village have never been black-topped or the school, where the polling was going on is in a dilapidated condition. “National Conference is symbol of Kashmir and dignity of its people.
We are a poor state ... infrastructure development will happen in due course,” he said.
However, the younger generation does not agree with this thought process, saying change is inevitable. “We want development. We want employment and we want change,” Mohammad Iqbal, a 25-year-old who was voting for the first time, said.
Iqbal and many youth like him feel that not voting in the last assembly elections was mistake.
