The door-to-door canvassing has returned to the Kashmir Valley for the first time since the 1987 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election — described generally by political observers as heavily rigged.
Overseen by the then Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference government and blamed for dividing the populace, the 1987 election was followed by a wave of terrorism that dominated a better part of the 1990s with active support from Pakistan. Elections and poll campaigns became a risky affair for candidates and the door-to-door canvassing stopped despite heavy deployment of security personnel.
But as the assembly election returns to Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of 10 years, it’s difficult to miss the scenes of calm and waning dread days before the phase of voting is held on September 18. The other two phases of voting are scheduled for September 25 and October 1.
Candidates now shake hands, embrace supporters, and enjoy tea during door-to-door campaigns — even in the downtown Valley areas where the gun’s shadow has lifted — instead of having to address people from a distance while heavily defended by the military.
Khurshid Alam, a former MLC and PDP candidate running for the Eidgah seat in Srinagar says, “We got back home before dusk earlier. Back then, there was risk. Now, campaigning lasts till one in the morning.”
Voters, too, echo the sentiment.
People who used to be reluctant and afraid to welcome politicians into their homes with tea and blessings now do it with openness. This degree of involvement has been unheard of in the last forty years, according to Gulzar Ahmad of Rajpora, Pulwama.
Ahmad made the contrast more pronounced. Earlier, candidates were wary about door-to-door canvassing because they thought that Hurriyat leaders and terrorist outfits would organise poll boycotts and stone-pelting.
According to Ahmad, people are now leaving their houses and approaching politicians directly with their problems.
Analysts surmise that the peaceful campaigning portends a spike in voter turnout, which in the Valley has been in the single digits for the majority of the previous 40 years.
In the Lok Sabha polls held this summer, voting in the Srinagar constituency reached a four-decade high of 38.5 per cent, signalling a turn of the tide.
The entry of many fresh faces is yet another noteworthy feature of this election. In seven of the ninety assembly seats, Independents supported by the outlawed Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) are also running for berths in the assembly. This is the first assembly election since J&K’s special status was abrogated in August 2019. The JeI claims that “electoral fraud” is the reason it was excluded from previous polls.
Aijaz Ahmed Guru, the brother of Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case of 2001 and executed in 2013, is one of the newcomers. Aijaz, an Independent from Sopore, is involved in the debate, bringing attention to regional concerns including joblessness and juvenile rehabilitation. During his campaigns, Aijaz declared that he would prioritise Sopore, which has been neglected for a long time. However, Tabasum, the widow of Afzal, has disassociated herself from her brother-in-law’s choice.
Baramulla MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, also known as Engineer Rashid, who defeated NC vice-president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Lok Sabha while in Delhi’s Tihar jail following the central government’s August 2019 move, is among the many Independent candidates.
His Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) has fielded 19 candidates but as Independent contestants. Rashid was recently granted temporary bail. Omar questioned the bail, alleging that Rashid’s brief release could be a “BJP ploy” to undermine the mainstream parties in the Valley.
Omar claimed that Rasheed would ultimately have to “return to Tihar”.
In response, Rashid said Omar could “see him off till Tihar” if he so desired. He also said that the former J&K chief minister never called for his release as a fellow Kashmiri, even though he had been demanding bail for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an ally of the INDIA bloc.
On Friday, Omar launched another attack, claiming that if Rashid “leaves the pitch for NC,” he would go with him to Tihar jail. Omar also questioned Rashid’s “silence” over the possibility of a post-election tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Omar alleged that the people of Baramulla were misled during the Lok Sabha election into believing that their votes would help Rashid’s release, but the truth is that the courts are the only way out of jail.
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A new era in J&K politics: Candidate door-to-door campaigning resumes
