112 year old man casts vote in Naidkhai Bandipora

Bandipora: A 112-year-old man of Manzpora Naidkhai has casted his vote on Wednesday during the seventh phase of District Development Council (DDC) polls at Naidkhai village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Talking to this reporter, Ab Rehman Lone (112), sitting outside polling station with his grandson at Naidkhai polling station said that he has voted Wednesday for the development and to end unemployment in his area.
He said that he had casted his Wednesday for only development of his area. “it was a compulsion for the people to cast their votes as no one was casting vote for development and unemployment at that time, ” he said.
“Since then, people have come to understand what is happening as there was no development in Kashmir and no end to unemployment. Later, after winning the previous election, people were becoming a ministers for their own families not for us,”he said.
Rehman said that the candidates who are contesting in Wednesday’s election are our own local leaders.Anytime we can go to their homes if we have any trouble,God forbid, he said.
That is why Wednesday, I think it is appropriate for me to caste vote because our own leaders and neighbors are contesting the election which can benefit us, he added.
“We are facing a lot of difficulties because there is no leader in Kashmir now. In our time, whenever there was a problem, we would go to our leaders and Wednesday no one understands who we will go to if people had problems,” he added.
He also said that there are many educated young people in our Mohalla but they are unemployed. “It hurts me when I look at them because they are educated but unemployed. The government should think of these young educated people,” he said. We dont have proper roads and electricity.
So my only hope now is that my vote will not be wasted Wednesday. I sincerely hope that the upcoming candidates will think well of their villages and will continue to develop. Futher the rest of them should also take special care of our educated youth, Rehman said.
Amid tight security, long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen in twin blocks of Bandipora where 72.46 per cent polling was recorded in Naidkhai, as Hajin-C registered 68.52 per cent while the total percentage was recorded 70.47 in the district.
It is pretent to mention here that in the 7th Phase of DDC elections across J&K, the two blocks in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Wednesday witnessed the record breaking polling of total 70.47 percent.