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J&K assembly polls: Dooru gears up for high stakes electoral duel
AICC general secretary and National Conference-Congress coalition candidate Ghulam Ahmad Mir has been trying hard to wrestle back the constituency
The southern constituency of Dooru in Anantnag district was the first constituency in Kashmir valley which witnessed a high profile election campaigning where many star campaigners like Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar, former J&K chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti converged to campaign for their respective candidates.
All India Congress Committee general secretary and National Conference-Congress coalition candidate Ghulam Ahmad Mir has been trying hard to wrestle back the constituency from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had won the seat in 2014 assembly elections by a mere 161 votes. Mir, former J&K Congress chief who has also served as tourism minister in J&K assembly, had been the MLA of Dooru for two consecutive terms in 2002 and 2008 before the PDP’s Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi claimed the seat amid the party’s wave in 2014 elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from south Kashmir’s Anantnag, Mir as well as Mehbooba Mufti had lost to Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference.
PDP, which has been in a survival battle in south Kashmir in this election, has dropped Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi and fielded Mohammad Ashraf Malik, a retired district and session’s judge.
Apart from Mir and Malik, eight more candidates are in the fray, including Hilal Ahmad Malik of Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party, and Mohammad Saleen Parray of Democratic Progressive Azad Party.
“While individual candidates of these parties might be good, the people in J&K this time will keep in mind that J&K has bigger issues to deal with and for them we need bigger secular parties and a stronger coalition. We have to see their manifestos and check whether they have the capacity to fulfil those,” said resident of Dooru, Abdul Hamid.
Rahul Gandhi started the Congress election campaign in Kashmir from the Dooru constituency on September 4, which is going to polls in the first phase along with 23 other constituencies of south Kashmir and Jammu region on September 18.
Gandhi had launched a high-pitched attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP for downgrading Jammu and Kashmir to a union territory. He promised to restore the region’s statehood and assured to raise their issues in the Parliament. “When we turn UT into a state or make another state, we strengthen democracy and deepen their rights but when a state is made a UT, then their rights are snatched away and J&K faced that injustice,” he said.
Along with Gandhi, even NC president and former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah campaigned for Mir sending a strong message to its cadres of coalition bonhomie among the two parties. From 1962 to 1996, Dooru has been a stronghold of NC winning most of the elections from the seat.
The NC-Congress has been targeting PDP for forming a coalition government with BJP in 2014 despite campaigning to keep the right wing party away from Kashmir.
“In 2014, they (PDP) promised one thing and delivered another. It was said that BJP’s tyranny has to be stopped. When secular parties provided them support and they went ahead with the BJP. The party facilitated BJP to form government here. It was BJP’s dream for 70 years,” Mir said.
He campaigned in Dooru and Verinag towns along with Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar and launched a ‘toffee and milk’ jibe at Mehbooba. “Doodh ka badla vote se, toffee ka badla vote se,” he raised slogan. In 2016, Mehbooba Mufti had justified the killings by security forces in the protests against the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani in the Kashmir Valley saying the kids hit by bullets or pellets had not gone to fetch milk or toffees. The comments had evoked sharp reactions against Mufti.
Evading the attacks of her opponents, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has been talking about resolution of Kashmir issue and Article 370. During a rally in Dooru she talked about her father’s government’s achievements in 2002. “In 2002, people of Kashmir united and changed system, forced PM to talk about starting dialogue. There were talks with Pakistan, roads were opened and POTA and task force were finished, and tyranny ended,” she said.
As against Mir’s high pitched campaign, PDP candidate Mohammad Ashraf Malik has been on a door to door insistent campaign going to rural belts of the constituency and pointing out Mehbooba Mufti’s rural connections.
“Mehbooba Mufti is a local and she is from south Kashmir. This party understands the difficulties rural communities face,” he said.
He has been defending the party saying the 2019 changes were BJP’s agenda for 70 years. “After 2019 change, who raised the voice against this? When J&K’s former CMs were detained, it was Iltija Mufti (Mehbooba’s daughter) who was putting across the voice of Kashmiris. When Mehbooba Mufti was released she came out on roads. When she started talking only then men started talking,” he said.
There has been some good response to the campaign of Engineer Rashid led AIP candidate, Hilal Ahmad Malik. His village to village campaign has been drawing some good crowds buoyed by the release of Rashid and his statements against BJP, NC, Congress and PDP.
“For the first time I am contesting and in our Dooru, people give us a lot of love. People’s emotions align with Er Rashid. They accept us and give us due respect. They know we are representing those who talk about people,” Malik said. “Our competition is not with people but with the ideology,” he said.
