In Lagama village of Uri, it appeared to be a contest between BJP and engineer Rashid’s AwamiIttihad Party. The village has about 400-odd Hindu, and a few Sikh, families. A group of women voters said they voted for the BJP candidate because of party’s “good record of governance”. “I don’t know the BJP candidate but we all will vote for BJP because we support the party and Prime Minister Modiji,” said a young woman, requesting anonymity.
As many as 100 votes were polled at the Lagama pollingstation number 93 by 11.30 am.
“I also voted for BJP because my father had told me to votefor them,” said Riya Sharma, 20.
Many had voted for Rashid.
“He is daring and speaks truth everywhere. My familysupports him and he should emerge as winner,” said Rohit Sharma alias Raju.
“My father has been living here since 1947 and we didn’tmigrate in 1990 when Kashmiri Pandits migrated to other states. We are livingin complete harmony with our Muslim community,” Sharma said.
Another voter said he voted for Rashid because PDP and otherregional parties had completely “disappointed us”.
“We don’t want to waste to our vote by supporting PDP orNC,” he said.
Rajesh Raina, a shopkeeper, however, said the people of thevillage mostly vote for National Conference or Congress.
“There can be some people who vote for other parties butgiven the overall trend the majority of the votes go in favour of NC orCongress,” Raina said.
Most of the 1200 Hindus of Uri are concentrated in Lagamavillage. Bandi, Rajarwani and Dayar are other areas with small Hindupopulations.