Mehbooba maps NC, PDP, Congress on one page

Calls all others BJP’s proxies; Frontal attack on Er Rashid adds a new twist to Kashmir polls; Jamaat, Sarjan next on PDP’s hit list

SRINAGAR Relieved of support from the valley’s separatists in the current Assembly elections, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Chief Minister has, for the first time since 1999, begun to call her former friendlies as the BJP’s proxies. At a news conference here on Monday, she made frontal attacks on the jailed MP and founder of Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) Engineer Rashid while alleging that “only PDP, NC and Congress” were espousing the Kashmir cause and fighting genuinely for the rights of the Kashmiri people.
Mehbooba alleged that “all others” were BJP’s proxies who had been fielded into the electoral fray in Kashmir only to divide the valley vote and benefit the ruling party at the Centre.
Even as Mehbooba named only Er Rashid and his party, her phrase of “all others” clearly targets not only her two particular rivals—Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party (AP) and Sajad Lone’s Peoples Conference (PC)—but also her separatist friendly of the past, Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported PDP in all elections after 1999.
Even in the Lok Sabha elections of 1998, a big chunk of the Jamaat-e-Islami voted for Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then the Congress party candidate in South Kashmir, and helped him score his first ever victory against National Conference (NC) in the Lok Sabha elections in Kashmir.
JeI’s support to PDP, notwithstanding its boycott to the elections on Hurriyat’s call in several areas, helped PDP win a number of the seats in the Assembly elections of 2002, 2008 and 2014, particularly in South Kashmir. Mehbooba herself was returned on PDP’s ticket with JeI’s overt support in Wachi (now Zainapora) in the organisation’s stronghold in Shopian district in 2008.
For the first time, however, the outlawed JeI has fielded at least three independent candidates in Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam districts and declared its support to the PDP rebel Aijaz Ahmad Mir in Zainapora. On Monday, JeI held the first ever well-attended election rally at Shopian, signalling an end to its 25-year-old relationship with PDP.
Sarjan Ahmad Wagay aka Sarjan Barkati, a virulent anti-Indian face of the Burhan turmoil of year, is contesting primarily against NC’s Omar Abdullah in Ganderbal even as he is also a candidate in the fray in Beerwah, where the former Chief Minister was expected to contest his second Assembly election after that of 2014.
The other day only, Omar claimed at an election rally in Ganderbal that jailed leaders, including Er Rashid and Sarjan Barkati, had been fielded against him only to ensure his defeat. Without naming any party, his target was obviously the Centre and the BJP. Even as Mehbooba’s attack on Rashid was frontal, Omar was moderate in his accusation.
This is for the first time that both, NC and PDP, are now directly attacking a big brigade of independent candidates of different party affiliations as also suggesting that “all others”, including AP, PC, AIP, were contesting the elections with the support and facilitation of the Centre.
Mehbooba alleged that funding “in crores” had been provided to the independent candidates particularly Rashid’s nominees who were mobilising thousands of vehicles overnight for their rallies and attacking her party’s candidates and workers with the Centre behind them.
“It took Mufti Sahab 50 years to create his party. Still we don’t have candidates and cadres in several areas. How does a jailed leader find and field candidates everywhere and hold rallies which involve huge expenditure?”, Mehbooba asked. “The entire PDP would have been in jail, had we attacked any candidate. Why hasn’t a single person of the assailants been arrested so far?”, she added.
After Mehbooba’s news conference, and amid reports that JeI was cutting away substantial vote from PDP candidates in Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts, political analysts foresee a paradigm shift in PDP’s relationship with the JeI. Her statements with a veiled attack, in fact, includes Sarjan and JeI when she claims that “all other than NC, PDP and Congress” were BJP’s proxies.
Meanwhile, reports from North Kashmir said that the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s brother Aijaz Guru was also planning to contest the Assembly elections from Sopore as an independent candidate as he had taken a set of the nomination papers from the office of the Returning Officer on Monday.