The elevated participation within the Lok Sabha elections in Kashmir is being celebrated as a historic feat in opposition to the Valley’s troubled historical past of frequent ballot boycotts. The turnout within the newest election is a sign of reposed religion in democracy as folks exercised their constitutional proper with out worry.
This was the primary main election after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, and it meant various things for various folks, primarily based on which facet of the political divide they have been on.
Rashid Defeats Omar Abdullah, Sajad Lone
The Baramulla end result, as an example, has triggered a fierce debate about whether or not the file turnout was a mirrored image of simmering discontent. Jailed chief Engineer Rashid registered a surprising victory right here as an Impartial, defeating former chief minister Omar Abdullah by over 2 lakh votes. Sajad Lone of the Folks’s Convention was pushed to a dismal third place, whereas Mehbooba Mufti’s Folks’s Democratic Occasion (PDP) candidate might garner simply 2% votes.
The query on everybody’s thoughts proper now could be, how did Rashid, who has been in Tihar jail for the final 5 years underneath terror-funding fees, handle to trump among the largest political leaders in Kashmir? Meeting elections in Jammu and Kashmir are across the nook – they’re more likely to be held earlier than the September deadline set by the Supreme Court docket – and Rashid’s victory is believed to have an effect past north Kashmir.
Rashid has secured 4.72 lakh votes. Amongst them, almost 3,000 have come from safety forces. Thus, a terror accused has received not only a landslide victory, however he has additionally managed to safe appreciable help from the armed forces, police and paramilitary personnel of the Baramulla constituency.
There’s a debate over whether or not Rashid’s victory will empower secessionists and whether or not it displays a “vote for resistance”. Omar Abdullah has additionally jumped into the controversy. Paradoxically, he had confronted related fees just some years in the past, when he was detained underneath the Public Security Act in 2020 over allegations of radicalism. The file had cited his “affect on the general public and his capacity to garner votes even throughout peak militancy and ballot boycotts” as grounds for detention.
Not New To Controversies
Engineer Rashid, a two-time MLA from Langate, is just not new to controversies. He’s seen by many as a unfastened canon who needs to be on the best facet of the political narrative however has additionally successfully engaged folks to curb stone-pelting and gun tradition within the Valley. In 2010, when Kashmir was dealing with its worst civilian unrest, Langate had remained largely peaceable. Rashid would encourage youth to resolve that they’d by no means choose up a gun or flip to militancy. For this, he was hailed by even native military models, which he had lengthy fought in opposition to over points like compelled labour close to the Line of Management.
Within the pre-2019 tradition of Kashmir, the place a sure ecosystem outlined the ethical compass of its folks and politics, Engineer Rashid had even been dubbed a safety ‘agent’. A lot in order that when the Gupkar Alliance was fashioned, he and his Awami Itihad social gathering (AIP) weren’t deemed worthy sufficient to be a part of the grouping to struggle in opposition to the abrogation of Article 370.
The massive mandate for Rashid, nevertheless, is just not a sudden windfall or merely a sympathy vote on account of his incarceration. The chief had already created a distinct segment for himself, and if it weren’t for the ballot boycott in 2019, he may even have received the Baramulla seat again then.
How To Learn Rashid’s Victory
The election this 12 months noticed robust whistle-stop campaigning by Rashid’s two sons, who within the weeks forward of the elections pressed residence the “jail ka badla vote se” (revenge for jail with votes) slogan, borrowed from the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) after Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. Whereas the slogan did not assist AAP a lot in Delhi, for Rashid’s marketing campaign, it grew to become a rallying cry. In truth, his son Abrar lately mentioned it took him a marketing campaign price simply Rs 27,000 – in gasoline fees – to defeat a former chief minister. Rashid’s common-man picture additionally helped him.
With meeting polls simply months away, the groundswell of help for a jailed politician couldn’t have come at a trickier time. Regional events are unnerved. Rashid’s potential launch from jail could form a brand new political actuality on the bottom. For a lot of who see his victory as a revival of separatism, a go to to Langate would present why Rashid enjoys such huge help for curbing stone-pelting and violence in his constituency lengthy earlier than the Centre started its crackdown.
(Nazir Masoodi is NDTV’s Srinagar Bureau Chief.)
Disclaimer: These are the non-public views of the creator