GANDERBAL: Voters lined up at polling stations in India-held Kashmir on Tuesday, ignoring a boycott call, to elect an assembly that India’s ruling nationalists are hoping to take control of for the first time.

Parliamentary elections in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir are usually marked by low turnout and heavy militant violence, exacerbating tensions in a region where tens of thousands have died in a 25-year revolt.

But on Tuesday, voters in 15 constituencies that went to the poll in the first phase of a staggered process stood in long queues to cast their ballot.

A clutch of parties including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are taking part in the elections.

Some people said they had come out to vote in the hope that there would be development in a region held back by years of strife and a devastating flood this year that destroyed homes and livelihoods.

Others said they were wary of the BJP and its bid to seize power in a state that has enjoyed a special status in the Indian constitution since 1947.

“We are coming out in large numbers to vote to block the Modi wave. We feel they will erode the special status of Kashmir and change the demography of the state as BJP is working on secret agenda,” said Maroof Ahmad, 22, in Ganderbal constituency where nearly a third of voters had cast their vote by midmorning.

The BJP has little presence in the Kashmir Valley, but emboldened by Mr Modi’s stunning victory in national elections earlier this year, it is hoping to pick most seats from the Hindu-dominated Jammu and Buddhist Ladakh parts of the state.

In the Kashmir Valley, Mr Modi’s party is hoping to win over independents, engineer splits in regional parties and get Hindus who fled during the revolt to register and vote.

“The time is ripe for political change here,” Mr Modi told a rally at the weekend, promising to turn a region of snow-clad mountains and gushing streams into a top tourist destination.

More parts of Jammu and Kashmir will go to the polls in the next several weeks and the result will be decla­red on Dec 23.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014