Families of active militants, youth root for democracy in J&K | India News – Times of India

BARAMULLA: The match was underway, yet a team of young cricketers decided to step off the field out of a sense of social responsibility and a desire for change – they were among those who exercised their franchise in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency that saw record polling on Monday.
The election saw several interesting highlights – players stopping a match midway to vote, former hardline separatists and families of active militants rooting for democracy, and supercentenarians and persons with disabilities overcoming difficulties in reaching polling booths.
A group of local players left their cricket match midway and reached a polling station in the Siloo area of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district which is part of the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency.
Once dubbed ‘chota Pakistan’, Sopore recorded a healthy turnout of 44 per cent after recording single-digit polling percentages in the past couple of decades. “We have come to vote. The youth, the new generation, wants a revolution of sorts, we want a change from what has been going on,” one of the young cricketers said. Another player, Muazzin Manzoor, a first-time voter, said a vote was necessary for development. “For the last 70 years, there has not been much improvement. So, I voted for the first time to bring change,” he said.
In another interesting highlight, a groom in the Nowshera area of the Uri assembly segment cast his vote before tying the knot. An active Lashkar-e-Taiba militant’s brother said the vote was his right.