NC banks on old warhorse to keep young guns at bay in J&K’s Khanyar
While there is a strong cadre and support for NC’s Ali Mohammad Sagar, the youth is keen on change and giving a chance to a fresh face.
Khanyar assembly constituency, one of the two safest citadels of National Conference (NC) in the capital Srinagar for the past 28 years, will go to polls in the second phase of assembly elections on September 25. Veteran NC leader and party general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar takes on a host of youngsters who are still being viewed as political greenhorns.
Sagar, 66, has won the seat for four consecutive terms since 1996. The Khanyar seat is a part of Old City, a hotbed of separatist politics and militancy in the past three decades, and is also home to some important shrines and religious places like Dastigeer Sahib shrine, Khwaja Naqshband Sahib and Rozabal.
Most of the Sagar’s wins came in the thick of militancy and low turnout owing to boycott politics. However, the recent Lok Sabha polls saw Srinagar seat elect NC’s Ruhullah Mehdi amid a record turnout of 39%.
Sagar had in 2014 defeated Peoples Democratic Party’s senior leader Khurshid Alam, who has since shifted base to Eidgah, another NC stronghold. The NC leader also faces former Srinagar deputy mayor and independent Sheikh Imran, Apni Party’s Bilal Ahmad Mir, Congress rebel Waseem Shalla, Peoples Democratic Party candidate Tafazul Mushtaq and Er Rashid led Awami Ittehad Party’s Parvez Jamal.
While there is a strong cadre and support for Sagar, the youth is keen on change and giving a chance to a fresh face.
Take the example of the family of K Bano, 78. “All through my life, I have been a NC voter right from Sheikh Abdullah’s emergence. Sagar has done a lot of work for our constituency even during militancy days. See how many community halls are in Khanyar. Besides, after 2019, we don’t want to take chances with any other party,” she said as her sons and daughters-in-law nod in approval.
However, among the family’s youngsters – all between 18 and 30 – there is a new wave of enthusiasm over the speeches and political rhetoric of Engineer Rashid. “He talks about the Kashmir issue, Article 370 and takes Narendra Modi head on. He says things that every Kashmiri would like to say after 2019 but fears of getting jailed,” said Bano’s granddaughter, an arts graduate.
Like Rashid, the AIP candidate in Khanyar, Parvez Jamal, 62, is also charismatic. In the age of technology, he holds a pen and diary to jot down people’s names and phone numbers as he campaigns in the interiors of Old City without any major security detail.
A filmmaker from Gagribal near Dal Lake, Jamal, wearing his long hair in a bun, attracts people by his presentation and style of talking. He accepts that his opponent Sagar has done good work but castigates his party for being dynastic. “Would his party make Sagar chief minister?” he questions.
Sagar is credited for laying a web of community centres and public parks in the congested constituency where people would face difficulties in holding marriage ceremonies and condolence meetings owing to lack of space, besides developing the lanes and bylanes of Khanyar.
His campaign has been mostly centred around small mohalla meetings, road rallies and door-to-door visits. Besides the usual politics reflected in his party’s manifesto like Article 370, statehood and other things, he has been focussing on people day to day issues like development, water and electricity. “Whether the competition is tough or easy, we have to fight it. One should never consider his opponents weak,” he said.
Other candidates have also been attempting to make inroads by holding meetings and going door to door.
Imran, the former Srinagar deputy mayor, has been desperately trying to make the cut among the people of Khanyar. His campaign has been mostly targeted at pointing out alleged corruption and dynasty politics by his opponents, while using Islamic symbolism to attract people.
“My politics is on five things; remove BJP, remove poverty, remove electricity metres, remove alcohol shops and revive downtown (Old City),” he told a public meeting.
Imran has two criminal cases registered against him. In 2019, he was arrested by the anti-corruption bureau in a case related to the alleged misappropriation of crores of rupees from the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. The case was re-registered by CBI in 2021.
PDP’s young candidate Tafazul Mushtaq, who has done BSc (honours) in science, has also been going in the interiors to woo voters. “I have been meeting people and most of them have given good responses. They have been very cordial during our campaigns. We are hoping for the best,” Mushtaq, who is also a businessman, said during a meeting in Nowpora.