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In Mufti bastion of Bijbehara, Iltija in uphill battle with NC
Iltija Mufti faces a tough electoral battle in Bijbehara against NC's Bashir Veeri, with both parties vying for voter support amid changing dynamics.
Iltija Mufti (36) is fighting her first political battle in her family’s home turf of Bijbehara, also known as Bijbehara-Srigufwara constituency, and it isn’t an easy one –– she is in a direct contest with National Conference veteran Bashir Veeri.
Bijbehara-Srigufwara will go to polls in the first phase of elections on September 18. Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is pulling out all the stops to win the seat which has so far been represented by two generations of the Mufti family, although she herself hasn’t spent too much time there. “We know it’s a tough battle but voters here will vote for our developmental work,” said PDP youth leader Najamus Saquib, who is one of the campaigners for Iltija Mufti.
Saquib, who is from Bijbehera town, said that both urban and rural pockets of the Bijbehara-Srigufwara constituency are part of the traditional voter base of the PDP. “In the last 25 years, a lot of developmental projects and schemes have been initiated by the PDP in the constituency which has had good impact on the people.”
In the recently held Lok Sabha polls, despite losing the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, of which this assembly constituency is a part, the PDP took a lead in the assembly segment. While the NC won 17,698 votes, PDP recorded 20,792 votes in the assembly segment.
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Since 1996, the party has never lost an assembly election from the constituency. But in the past decade, the National Conference has gained strength in the constituency. “PDP is strong here. But NC, of late, has made serious inroads. Unlike the past, this is going to be a tough competition,” said Waseem Mushtaq, a former PDP worker.
NC candidate Bashir Ahmad Veeri had previously lost two elections in a row from Bijbehara-Srigufwara. However, party supporters believe the situation will be different this year, especially given the anti incumbency against the PDP. “In 2014, despite the strong wave of PDP, they could only win by a slim margin as they manipulated things then. This time, people know what they have done in the constituency, so they will teach them a lesson,” said Veeri who is no stranger to the constituency; his father represented it thrice on a NC ticket. “They (PDP) took votes to keep BJP away and later formed the government with the same party. So, people of the constituency will remember that while casting their votes,” he added, referring to the party’s alliance with BJP after the 2014 election.
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There is a BJP candidate in the fray too, former legislator Sufi Yusuf, but most people admit the contest is going to be between the NC and the PDP. “While PDP will try to bank on the work it has done in the constituency and hope more people come out for voting in the urban pockets of Bijbehara, NC will rely on the contacts established by their candidate who has been camping in the constituency for the past 10 years. The competition will be very close,” said Abdul Rashid Dar from Sirhama, which is one of the largest villages in the constituency with 4,522 voters.
