J&K polls: 219 candidates for 24 seats; 91 running as independents

With the nominations for the first phase of J&K polls finalised, there will be 219 candidates in the fray for the 24 seats going to vote on Sept 18. Among the 219, 91 are contesting as independents

It’s a warm, sunny day and people are starting to gather at an urban, congested locality. Traditionally known for its educational offerings, the small place by the name Khudhamam, in the key Dooru Assembly constituency of southern Kashmir, has now a political address.

Women donning burqas, elderly men in multicultural skull-caps, and the youth in trendy outfits are trickling in to attend an election gathering at a local candidate’s residence, which, since the announcement of the much-awaited Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Assembly elections on August 16, has hosted several such gatherings.

“Chaalis saal bekaar, chaar saal bemisaal (Useless for 40 years, unmatched for four),” Iqbal Ahmad Ahanger, who’s fighting independently, told the gathering while referring to his tenure of four years as local municipal committee chairman. In the four years, going above and beyond the municipality limits to work for the people is what made him a “standout candidate”.
 

Iqbal, who started his political journey in the early 2000s with the Congress, is pitted against his long association of over two decades. Having devoted his career to the rise of Ghulam Ahmad Mir, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee and a two-time member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Dooru constituency, Iqbal is now in a tough poll battle with Mir, along with the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) new entrant, Mohammad Ashraf Malik.

“I had no other option but to part ways. Dynastic and family politics runs deep in the Congress. They never allow anyone to grow beyond that bubble, whatsoever the sacrifices and hardships one has endured,” Iqbal told Business Standard.
 

In March this year, the J&K government included 15 new castes in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category and increased its quota to 8 per cent in job reservation.

“I’ve made painstaking efforts for this reservation and am hopeful for their votes. Our tribals and backward people also remember my extraordinary efforts all these years and I see this all as a major blessing for the upcoming polls,” added Iqbal, chairman of the OBC Welfare Association.

With the nominations for the first phase of the Assembly elections finalised, there will be 219 candidates in the fray for the 24 constituencies going to vote on September 18. Among the 219 candidates, 91 are contesting as independent.

But, it’s only in a few constituencies that independents are posing a tough battle against

political stalwarts.

Aijaz Ahmad Mir, a former MLA of the PDP, is contesting from the newly formed Zainapora constituency as an independent after it denied him the ticket from the region’s second-largest party.

“I’ve been a victim of political backstabbing. Never in my wildest of dreams could I see myself being sidelined by the party to which I gave my 14 long years of commitment and support in the most testing of times,” Aijaz told Business Standard.
 

With a tent pitched in the lawns of his residence and saffron-Kehwa pouring, Aijaz receives crowds of people till late evening and also conducts gatherings in the constituency with his social-media page intermittently live-streaming events, mostly marked by sloganeering in his favour.

He’s fighting two bigwigs, one in the PDP and other from the National Conference. “The situation has gone better, there are no boycott calls, and people are taking part in elections. The dynamics have changed, cadre-based parties have much to lose and much to witness as youths take over,” Aijaz added.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, a socio-religious outfit, last participated in J&K elections in 1987 under the rubric of the Muslim United Front. Widely believed to be rigged, elections since then remained a no-go zone for the Jamaat. Although there has been some inconspicuous support to the PDP since 2002, largely the outfit was seen in the frame of Kashmir’s separatist politics and known for its election boycott and hostility to New Delhi.

Facing a ban since February 2019 with its hundreds of educational institutions and religious seminaries shut, the Jamaat is returning to politics after over three decades and has fielded four candidates in the South Kashmir segments of Pulwama, Kulgam, Devsar, and Zainapora.

“This ban has crippled our lives. What option do we have other than to prove ourselves with elections? We always believed in peace and democracy, violence has yielded nothing and only cost us our talented human resource — economy and education,” Talat Majid, Jamaat-backed independent candidate in the Pulwama segment, told Business Standard.
 

A source privy to the Jamaat’s poll affairs said the outfit would lend support to like-minded independent candidates in other constituencies. “We’ve certain conditions and talks are under way. The number you see today is going to rise,” a source said.

In the ongoing nominations for the second and third phases, the Jamaat is fielding at least three candidates in central Kashmir and four in north Kashmir. “With no financial backing, we’re taking the bearings of our strongholds and are contesting them on our own,” Kalimullah Lone, who holds a doctorate in computer sciences and is the Jamaat’s candidate for the North Kashmir’s Langate constituency, told Business Standard.

Ahead of the elections, the Apni Party’s Altaf Bukhari mediated the talks between the Jamaat’s brass and New Delhi on the lifting of the ban. “We won’t forget what Altaf saab did for us. We’ll pay back,” Majid added. In the meantime, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday called for the lifting of ban on Jamaat.

Infighting in BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in J&K had to retract its first list of candidates last week, issuing later a revised one and new lists when it faced resentment and protests at the party headquarters in Jammu. Top leaders, including former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and party chief Ravinder Raina, stand dropped.
 

On Friday, BJP veteran Chander Mohan Sharma resigned from the party to contest independently after being denied the ticket. “Fissures in the party run deep, and many like me will resign. This is going to be a big blow to the BJP’s election prospects,” Sharma told Business Standard.

The writer is a Srinagar-based independent journalist