First major poll in Kashmir since loss of autonomy begins Monday

By Hilal Mir

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - A major election will be held in Kashmir for the first time since its special political status was abrogated by the Hindu nationalist Indian government on Aug. 5, 2019.

Elections for the prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency, scheduled May 13, will see a three-way contest between the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which have ruled the region for the most part since 1947, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In 2019, the BJP-led Indian government scrapped Article 370 and Article 35(A) of the Constitution that granted Jammu and Kashmir powers to have its own Constitution and flag and barred outsiders from buying properties or taking government jobs.

The region was also downgraded from a state into two federally ruled territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Minus the one parliamentary seat of Ladakh, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will now send five parliamentarians to the 543-seat Indian parliament -- three from the Muslim-majority Kashmir province and two from the Hindu-majority Jammu province.

Polls for the two Jammu seats have already been completed in earlier phases of the multi-phase polls. In terms of numbers, the five seats from the region are not significant but in the backdrop of the Aug 5 decision, they have a comparatively greater symbolic value. This was evident from the campaigning, which centered around the scrapping and its larger political ramifications.

Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, a prominent Shia leader and the most vocal critic of the abrogation of autonomy, is the NC’s candidate for Srinagar. His campaign has focused on Five Ds: "Dignity, Dialogue, Democracy, Development and Diversity," calling the loss of the special political status an "assault on our identity" and "the return of dignity and rights that were snatched from us" as his primary concern.

"The constitutional status that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed was taken away unconstitutionally and undemocratically," he told reporters during a campaign in the Budgam district. "This abrogation happened while the entire population was put into an open-air prison."

- 'Referendum'

His main challenger, Waheed Parra of the PDP, urged voters to consider the elections a "referendum," which prompted the Election Commission of India to seek a clarification on the use of the term.

During the past 34 years of the anti-India insurgency, pro-freedom parties have been calling for a referendum as enshrined in a UN resolution. In his reply, Parra said the reference "only points towards the importance the present election holds and nothing else."

The third main candidate in the fray, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, hails from the Apni Party, an ally of BJP and headed by a business tycoon cum former minister, Altaf Bukhari. Mir and his party have accused the NC and PDP of "misleading people for decades by showing them false dreams of autonomy and self-rule" and blamed them for killing, jailing and blinding hundreds of youth during their stint in power.

"They have only done things for their own benefit. No one has listened to the people and even today, people are yearning for electricity, water and roads. We will not do the politics of lies and deceit. We will do the politics of honesty," he told reporters after filing nomination papers.

The NC won all three Kashmir seats in the Indian general election in 2019, months before the abrogation, and BJP the two seats of Jammu and the lone Ladakh seat.

It has won Srinagar 10 times since 1947. About 1.75 million voters are expected to cast ballots at nearly 2,500 polling stations, some specially set up for women, youth and people will disabilities.

Elections for the two other constituencies in Kashmir -- Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri -- will be held May 20 and May 25, respectively.

Keenly watched would be the contest in northern Baramulla, where former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah faces Sajad Lone, son of the assassinated pro-freedom leader Abdul Gani Lone, and Engineer Rashid, a former legislator who has been in jail since 2019 on charges of "terror funding."

His son, Abrar Rashid, will be his "covering candidate."

The Anantnag-Rajouri constituency came into being after the redrawing of electoral boundaries in 2022, which many Kashmiri parties said was aimed at denting their electoral advantage.

Earlier, the Anantnag constituency consisted exclusively of assembly segments with a majority ethnic Kashmiri Muslim population and its boundaries were entirely in the Kashmir Valley. But the redrawing has added nearly 800,000 people from other religious and ethnic groups, mainly Gujjar and Pahari Muslims.

The NC has fielded Mian Altaf, a former minister and distinguished Gujjar leader, against former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Zafar Manhas from the Apni Party who is most likely to get support from the BJP, which has not fielded a candidate on its own from any of the three seats.