Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU: With the last day of filing of nomination papers being just one day away, almost all the major political parties on Monday selected candidates for six seats of Legislative Council for which the election is scheduled to be held on April 17th.
Even as none of the parties had officially declared their nominees until midnight, well-placed sources revealed to STATE TIMES that the ruling PDP-BJP coalition distributed the four safe seats. After the BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav’s recent visit to Srinagar and a meeting with the PDP President and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, it was decided that BJP would field its candidate for the safest seat of Poonch-Rajouri and one unsafe seat of Jammu but keep one safe seat of Jammu for PDP in exchange for one of the two safe seats in Kashmir.
With that both the ruling parties finalised their candidates for the four safe seats as well as one seat in Jammu for which four independent MLAs are holding the key. Sources said that the nominations could be made officially public only on March 29, the last date for filing of nominations. According to these sources, PDP would repeat its outgoing MLC Yasir Rishi on one safe seat in Kashmir while as BJP would give its ticket for the second safe seat in the Valley to a Kashmiri Pandit activist Ajay Bharti.
For the third seat in Kashmir, which is the opposition’s only safe seat among the six, National Conference-Congress alliance has decided to field a prominent Shia leader and former Minister Aga Syed Mehmood.
In Jammu province, the ruling coalition’s candidate for the safest seat of Poonch-Rajouri would be the BJP leader Pradeep Sharma while as its candidate for a safe seat in Jammu would be the PDP leader Abdul Qayoom Dar.
For the last and the only seat on which a tough contest would take place in Jammu between the ruling coalition and the Opposition alliance, BJP’s candidate would be Vikram Randhawa—former MLA Choudhary Piara Singh’s son who was a strong contender for Gandhi Nagar seat in Assembly election of 2014 but had surrendered in favour of Kavinder Gupta.
With the seat-sharing having been finalised between NC and Congress, the opposition alliance’s candidate to fight Randhawa would be picked up by AICC top brass any time in the next 24 hours. However, sources insisted that the former Akhnoor MLA and Cabinet Minister of Omar Abdullah’s Government Choudhary Sham Lal was the frontrunner.
Significantly, BJP has decided to give second nomination in Legislative Council to a Kashmiri Pandit, Ajay Bharti, after Surinder Ambardar, even as it was under tremendous pressure from Shia and Gujjar communities.
Both, the Shias as well as the Gujjars, have been complaining that BJP has exploited them politically in Jammu and Kashmir but not given them any representation in any forum. “BJP has given all its seats to Jammu Dogras, Kashmiri Pandits, Kashmiri Sunni Muslims and also one to a Sikh but none to any Gujjar or Shia”, complained one of the party’s district Presidents. He said that leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on different occasions publicly claimed to support the two communities.
Known to be enjoying strong clout in RSS, Ajay Bharti is understood to be the choice of Ram Madhav. President of Jammu and Kashmir Vichar Manch, Bharti had attempted to start Abhinav Gupt yatra to a hillock in Beerwah town of Budgam district last year with the support of The Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. However, the Kashmiri separatists led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani resisted and failed Bharti’s campaign.
On the other hand, NC this time around has selected Shia leader Aga Mehmood who belongs to the influential cleric family of Agas of Budgam. In 1987, Aga Mehmood had been returned on NC’s ticket from Pattan. He was inducted as Minister of State for Revenue in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s NC-Congress coalition. Later, in 1996, he was again returned from Beerwah and inducted as Minister of State for Education in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government. He deserted NC after Aga Ruhullah’s admission in 2002 and subsequently joined PDP. He returned to NC on Dr Abdullah’s persuasion in 2014 and played key role in Omar Abdullah’s victory in Beerwah.
Ticket to Aga Mehmood is significant at a time when PDP has appointed Shia leader and Minister of Youth Services and Sports Maulvi Amran Ansari as incharge of Srinagar-Budgam seat for the Lok Sabha by-election in which NC’s ace Dr Abdullah is contesting PDP’s greenhorn Nazir Ahmad Khan. Shia and Gujjar vote banks are considered to be pivotal for a contestant’s victory in possibly the lowest turnout elections.
Retired SP and PDP’s Rajouri District President Abdul Qayoom Dar has been given ticket for a Jammu seat as he is believed to be enjoying support in Muslim vote bank in Rajouri-Gool-Banihal strip of Pir Panjal.