Election results: People keep fingers crossed

While the stage is all set for the counting of votes across India including in Jammu and Kashmir, the political parties are keeping a close eye on the results, slated to be announced Tuesday as the process to count the votes polled in the recently concluded seven-phased 18th Lok Sabha elections. In Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, some bigwigs including the incumbent Union Minister, former chief ministers and former ministers of erstwhile J&K state are among the total 100 candidates, who are vying for the five seats here. As all the arrangements have been finalized and made on the ground, the fate of these candidates will be determined on June 04, 2014, which will expose the claims of the candidates as well as their parties before the public. Interestingly, the fate of a jailed leader, Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh will also be determined like others, but it would clear a picture before the public whether those, who participated in the election rallies of his sons, literally turned into the voters or favoured others during the elections. The close contest is expected in Baramulla Parliamentary Constituency, where three major candidates including National Conference (NC) Vice President and Peoples Conference (PC) Chairman Sajad Gani Lone and jailed leader Engineer Rashid are in the race. The candidates, political parties as well as the voters keep their fingers crossed as a few hours are left to make the results public. Since J&K recorded a massive turnout in almost four-decades, it would be interesting to see the fate of the candidates after the counting of votes.