Jamaat, Engineer Rashid’s party fail to make impact in J&K polls

The AIP was expected to build on its performance in this summer’s Lok Sabha polls in which Rashid defeated National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah

Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-backed independent candidates and Engineer Abdul Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) failed to make much impact even as their last-minute alliance was expected to skew the electoral arithmetic in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The AIP was leading on just one of the 35 seats (Langate) it contested while Jamaat-backed nominees were trailing in all 10 constituencies they were fielded from.

Awami Ittehad Party chief Engineer Rashid. (ANI)

The participation of the JeI-backed candidates marked the organisation’s return to electoral politics after 37 years. Of them, Sayyar Ahmad Reshi (Kulgam) was the only candidate to give his opponents a run for their money.

Reshi held major election programmes, and spoke about democracy and the return of Kashmiri Pandits during electioneering. He had polled 24,753 votes after the 16th of 17 rounds. He was trailing against Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and four-time lawmaker MY Tarigami.

The performance of candidates backed by Jamaat, which was banned in 2019, was dismal elsewhere. Kalimullah Lone, 35, son of former Jamaat general secretary Ghulam Qadir Lone, was trailing at the fifth position by 3,300 votes after the conclusion of the penultimate round of counting in Langate.

The AIP was expected to build on its performance in this summer’s Lok Sabha polls in which Rashid defeated National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah and former minister Sajad Gani Lone. Rashid led in 14 out of the 18 assembly segments of the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency.

Rashid, who was arrested in 2019 in connection with a terror funding case and granted bail to campaign in the assembly polls, attracted good crowds to his rallies. His brother Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh appeared to retain AIP’s stronghold of Langate. Rashid has been a two-term legislator from Langate.

Sheikh was leading with 24,977 votes against People’s Conference’s Irfan Sultan Pandithpuri (23,279) after the penultimate round of counting.

Former Kashmir University professor Noor Baba said the people wanted a clear mandate and avoid fragmentation of votes in Kashmir. He said Jamaat has never been a major electoral factor in Kashmir politics. “They never had any major electoral successes. Except in the 1972 elections when they had some four to five seats, they were mostly restricted to one to three seats,” he said.

Baba said people voted for Rashid in the Lok Sabha polls out of sympathy. “At that time he was in jail and suffering. So, people considered him a victim. There was also some nostalgia for the kind of politics he practised,” he said. “Now the situation was different. He was campaigning for his party and there was more of an ambition now.”