Tag: kashmir ddc polls

‘Serves Delhi’s Purpose’: The Why and How of Sajad Lone’s Exit From the Gupkar Alliance

Alliance leaders told The Wire that the decision was unsurprising and the predominant atmosphere in the PAGD was that of betrayal since the DDC election.

Srinagar: People’s Conference’s decision on Tuesday to pull out of the Gupkar alliance came after days of speculation.

This is the first major setback to the alliance of regional parties comprising National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and CPI(M) among others, who had joined hands to fight against the reading down of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

“It is difficult for us to stay on and pretend as if nothing has happened,” Sajad Lone wrote in a three-paged letter to the Gupkar alliance chief Dr Farooq Abdullah. “There has been a breach of trust between partners which we believe is beyond remedy.”

The letter comes in the backdrop of the recently held DDC elections in Jammu and Kashmir, in which the Gupkar alliance had bagged over 110 out of 280 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats, including the saffron party’s maiden wins from Kashmir.

Turbulence

Formed on October 20, 2020, the Gupkar alliance, formally the Peoples Alliance of Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), drifted towards turbulent waters soon after the J&K State Election Commission last year announced the schedule of the first-ever DDC elections.

Also read: ‘Breach of Trust’: Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference Quits Gupkar Alliance

After the announcement, consensus evaded the constituent parties on the choice of candidates. “When the PAGD leaders met to finalise the first list of candidates (for the DDC polls), there were heated arguments and the first sign of fissures began to appear,” said a People’s Conference leader, who did not want to be named.

“This alliance needed sacrifice. Every party had to sacrifice on the ground in terms of giving space to fellow allies. No party is willing to cede space, no party is willing to sacrifice. We fought against each other in Kashmir province not against the perpetrators of August 5. And those who perpetrated August 5 and their minions are now vocally gleeful,” Lone said in his letter.

Sources in PAGD told The Wire that even in situations where candidates of other parties had seemingly better chances, Farooq Abdullah, who is also the chief of the National Conference, “refused to listen” and unilaterally nominated his party’s candidates as PAGD candidates. “He took these decisions without consultations, thereby upsetting the constituent parties,” a leader of the People’s Conference said.

This “betrayal” by the NC chief led to a no-holds-barred slugfest in which almost every Kashmir-based political party, including Lone’s PC, fielded a candidate against their own PAGD candidate. In one north Kashmir constituency, a PAGD candidate lost because the PC had fielded a “proxy” candidate.

Also read: J&K DDC Polls: Despite Gupkar Alliance, Parties Are Fielding Proxy Candidates

“In majority of the places the party fielding the candidate on behalf of PAGD was left to fend for itself and secured the votes that his party managed. In most places other parties were silent bystanders or worst compounded the problem by fielding proxy candidates,” Lone said in his letter.

Of the 280 DDC seats, 19 saw a neck-to-neck contests where the margin of victory was fewer than 100 votes. Of these, eight were independents, two each were from National Conference and Congress, and one each from Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, People Democratic Front and People’s Conference.

“Even as we were seemingly putting up a joint fight, there was a much bigger internal fight to pull each other down,” said the same People’s Conference leader quoted above.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and other leaders look on as People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration spokesperson Sajjad Lone speaks to the media after a meeting in Srinagar, October 24, 2020. Photo: PTI/S. Irfan

Change of mind

In a recent function in Kupwara, Sajad Lone, who was also the spokesperson of PAGD, said the alliance was “firm on its resolve and will use every democratic way to ensure the return of the rights snatched by New Delhi on August 5, 2019.”

Questioning the timing of Lone’s exit, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, the Lok Sabha MP from south Kashmir, who is also the coordinator of the alliance, said he should have “approached the PAGD leadership” if he was upset.

“Only yesterday in Handwara he (Sajad Lone) had said that there was no difference within PAGD. He would better know what changed,” Masoodi said, adding that the PAGD leadership “gave away whole constituency” of north Kashmir to the candidates of People’s Conference.

Lone’s party contested 10 seats in north Kashmir out of which it won eight. The party’s “80% strike rate” in the DDC elections became possible, said Masoodi, because the members and supporters of the “constituent parties voted for them.”

“That PAGD was under pressure from all sides was evident during the DDC elections when alliance candidates were put through all inconveniences. The PAGD will continue to fight for its cause,” Masoodi said.

Future

Political observers see the unravelling of the Gupkar alliance as a result of the “pressure” mounted by the BJP government that is keen on “normalising” the post-Article 370 situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

“They (constituents of PAGD) came together so that none of them accuses the other(s) of betrayal. Yet now they collectively participated in the betrayal. This process, more than anything else, served Delhi’s purpose of setting the political course in Kashmir back to ‘normal’ after the reading down of Article 370,” Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, a three time legislator and NC leader, told The Wire.

Ruhullah said the political leaders in Kashmir, instead of agitating for the return of democracy and Article 370, participated in a “hollow and false process.” “Delhi got an excuse to sell their participation as proof that political situation is back to normal,” he said.

People line up to cast their votes in the DDC polls. Photo: PTI

A political observer said the Gupkar alliance’s decision to contest the DDC elections “also tested the waters for their electoral future” after August 5. “After the results, everyone is looking forward to getting a bigger share by contesting future elections on their own,” he said.

With the exit of Sajad Lone, a former BJP ally, the Gupkar alliance has been pushed on shaky ground. There are murmurs within the Peoples Democratic Party, the second largest constituent of PAGD with more than 25 DDC seats, against continuing in the alliance after the NC leaders recently met the LG.

“The PAGD is bigger that individual goals. We were the first to sacrifice our party’s interests for the larger goal of our dignity and democracy, and we will continue to fight for PAGD’s stated objectives,” said a PDP leader.

“But with the political climate warming up, it is unclear which way the wind will blow in coming weeks and months,” he said.

Professor Aijaz Ashraf, who teaches Political Science at the Central University of Kashmir, believes the exit of Sajad Lone from PAGD is a “political move” that was always on the horizon.

“It is only that he (Lone) did it first. People were always skeptical about the resilience of this alliance and their determination to resist the temptations of power. It was only a matter of time before parties start thinking about their own political interests and not of the alliance,” Ashraf said.

“This is the beginning. Let’s see where it ends. That is more interesting.”

‘Breach of Trust’: Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference Quits Gupkar Alliance

In the three-page letter to Farooq Abdullah, Lone has said that some constituents of the grouping had fielded proxy candidates in the DDC election.

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairperson Sajad Lone on Tuesday announced his party’s exit from the seven-party conglomerate People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

In a letter addressed to PAGD head and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, Lone said there has “been a breach of trust among partners” which is “beyond remedy.”

In the three-page letter, Lone has said that some constituents of the grouping had fielded proxy candidates in the district development council (DDC) elections, which reportedly led to a sizeable dent in the PAGD’s vote share.

In late November, 2020, Kaisar Andrabi had reported for The Wire on this phenomenon of the three leading parties of the Gupkar Alliance fielding proxy candidates as ‘independents’ against each other. The report also finds People’s Conference members doing the same.

“On the face of it, PAGD won these elections unambiguously having won the maximum number of seats. We can’t hide statistics and apart from the number of seats that PAGD won, other important statistical variable in the context of August 5 (reading down of Article 370) is the number of votes polled against the PAGD.”

Also read: DDC Poll Results Prove BJP’s Claim of Ending NC-PDP Rule in Kashmir Wrong

He said he believed that the votes polled against the PAGD are mostly those cast by proxies of PAGD constituent parties against official PAGD candidates.

“This is certainly not the vote share that people of J and K deserved post August 5,” Lone said in the letter.

Members of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and others during a press conference after their meeting, at Bathindi in Jammu, Saturday, November 7, 2020. Photo: PTI

He added that there was a marked dissonance between what the leaders of the PAGD were discussing at their meetings in Srinagar and the actions of their respective parties on the ground.

This, he added, led to a situation where “those who perpetrated August 5 (the BJP at the Centre) and their minions are now vocally gleeful.”

Lone has stressed that the People’s Conference is choosing to “divorce” from the alliance and not its objectives.

“And the PAGD leadership should be assured that we will extend support on all issues which fall within the ambit of stated objectives. We have issued clear instructions to all party leaders not to issue any statements against the PAGD alliance or its leaders,” he wrote.

‘Will Not Contest Elections Till Article 370 Is Restored’: PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti

The Kashmiri leader has dubbed the resounding victory of the Gupkar Alliance in district development polls a referendum against the narrative of the BJP.

New Delhi: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, in an interview to NDTV, said that she will not contest any election until the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 has been restored.

The decision has been made public in response to a question as to who would become the chief ministerial candidate if state assembly polls were to be held as her party is a constituent of the Gupkar Alliance along with its political rival, National Conference.

“We have been rivals, but for the larger cause of Jammu and Kashmir we can all get together. We are Kashmiris at the end of the day. We are not talking only about elections but for the larger cause of restoring what was lost,” Mufti said in the interview.

She added that whenever state polls are held, a discussion would be held regarding the chief ministership. She made it amply clear that she will not be in the race.

Also read: J&K DDC Polls: Gupkar Alliance Wins 110 Seats, BJP Emerges as Single Largest Party With 74 Seats

On the Gupkar Alliance’s resounding victory in the district development council (DDC) polls, she has said that the people of Kashmir have rejected the narrative of the BJP, as she equated the local body polls to a referendum on scrapping of Article 370. While the seven-party alliance has won in 13 districts, the BJP has bagged six districts in Jammu.

“This is like a referendum on the scrapping of Article 370, and the BJP themselves kept harping on the subject during campaigning. So, the result shows that the people of J&K have rejected that narrative. They have thereby rejected scrapping of Article 370,” she added.

The DDC polls are the first election held in the region after Article 370 was scrapped by the Union government in August 2019, and has since seen the detention of political leaders in the region, including Mufti. The elections were held in seven phases across 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir union territory.

The PDP chief said that there were many detentions during the election campaign for the DDC polls and she added that she was told categorically by the authorities not to move out of her detention until voting started.

She lamented that the constitution is being replaced by the BJP agenda not just in Kashmir but across India.

“I may be arrested anytime… There is a silence of graveyards here. They have terrorised everyone into silence. What is happening in the country, multiply it by 100. That is what is happening in Kashmir,” she has added.

Responding to a question on the PDP alliance government with the BJP, she said that her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, had tried to engage with the BJP only to resolve the problems of Kashmir, and defended the alliance.

“My father made a deal with the devil. Mufti did not join hands with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi but with the Prime Minister of India, to resolve the problems of Kashmir. My father tried to engage the BJP through an alliance. Our agenda was the same and we entered into the alliance on our terms. They agreed to everything, but after the government fell, they did what they wanted,” she recalled.

DDC Polls: In Central Kashmir, Some Villages Have Lost Faith in Elected Representatives

In the fourth phase of election, the voter turnout in Kashmir was around 30% while in Jammu it was around 70%.

Budgam: On the chilly morning of December 7, 72-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Dar was sitting at a shop near a polling booth. For the first time in his life, Dar, a resident of central Kashmir’s Budgam district (Kawoosa village) did not vote. In the past, even when calls were give to boycott the elections, he had never refrained from voting.

Kawoosa is located halfway from the famous winter tourist spot Gulmarg. Surrounded by paddy fields, the village has around 5,000 voters. But among the four booths located at two different locations, only 9 votes had been cast in the elections to the district development council (DDC) as of 1 pm on Monday.

However, in other villages like Nopora, Gagerpora – located close to Kawoosa, witnessed a higher turnout.

Unlike the situation in South Kashmir, the people of Central Kashmir have not remained away from electoral politics for the past several years due to unrest and militancy. But in the fourth phase of polling for the DDC elections, the response has been visibly cold, perhaps indicating that in this part of Kashmir too, people are either indifferent to or are losing faith in electoral democracy.

Kawoosa comes under Beerwah constituency, where former chief minister Omar Abdullah had won the assembly seat. In the DDC elections, a total of eight candidates are in the fray.

Dar says the village has always played a deciding role in who wins the constituency. In the last assembly elections, the village had overwhelmingly supported the National Conference (NC).

“Nobody in the village has any faith left in politicians now. You can see women fetching water in buckets from tube wells, as we don’t have water supply, electricity or even a drainage system. Scores of other issues have remained pending for decades,” he said, in an angry tone. “This is the reason we have decided to boycott the election,” he added.

Also Read: No Boycott Call This Time, But Some Pulwama Areas Stay Away From J&K DDC Polls

A few meters away was another polling booth, where a group of army officers accompanied by a local political worker had come to check the number of votes that had been cast.

The army officer in a candid tone asked the presiding officer about the voter turnout. “Zero sir. Mujhe lagta hai hum jaise aaye hai weise hi jayen ge (I guess, we will leave (the booth) in the same state it was when it was opened,” said the officer with a gentle smile.

The political worker said though he had been making the rounds and asking people to vote, he had managed to motivate only five-eight people.

Notably, there is an active militant who was a resident of the village until he joined took up arms four years ago. He joined the militancy after his father had allegedly been killed in a shootout. The village was a hub of militants during the 1990s when Kashmir witnessed the first wave of militancy in the region.

Other residents with whom The Wire spoke to also expressed sentiments that were similar to Dar’s. “We don’t need anything [from the government,” one resident said.

However, in some areas of the district, especially in the hilly areas, people waited in long queues for their turn to vote. For instance, in Surasyar, Bunyaar and Dadwopora villages, a good number of people cast their votes in the hope that the outcome of the election will reduce the high unemployment levels and put an end to their ‘hardships’.

Farhat Qureshi, 29, a first time voter of Sursyaar village, told The Wire that for the past year, no one has come to listen to the woes of the pople. “So, this time I have decided to vote to see a better approach from the local candidate,” he said.

The villagers hoped that the nearest tourist spot – Branwaar – to be developed as it can generate employment for the youth. “The candidates have promised to us that they will address a number of our issues, many of which we have been facing for a long time. Only time will tell if they stand by their words,” Qureshi added.

During the fourth pase, areas in South Kashmir such as Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama, recorded a a thin or low voter turnout.

Like in the phases, Shopian and Kulgam districts saw a good voting percentage once again during the fourth phase. However, in areas like Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, around 90% of the people have stayed away from the polls. In Anantnag too, barely 25% turnout was recorded.

In Bandipora, people of Binlipora alleged that Abdul Rahman Thekri, the BJP’s district president, had disrupted polling for about half an hour. He went inside the polling station and stopped the polling mid-way, according to people who went to cast their votes.

The voters allege that he tried to force people to vote for his party. However, Thekri denied the allegation and said that he only went to the polling station to check the polling process.

A photo taken during DDC polls in Jammu and Kashmir, 2020. Photo: PTI

Over 50% turnout, says SEC

Meanwhile, state election commissioner (SEC) K.K. Sharma said that the fourth phase of the DDC polls in J&K recorded 50.08% voting, while no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the UT. As has been the general trend during the polls, Jammu recorded a turnout of around 70% while Kashmir recorded around 30%.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Sharma said that 1,916 polling stations were set up for this phase and that 3,64,527 voters had exercised their right.

“People in large numbers came out to vote in J&K. In total, 34 constituencies went to polls—17 each in Kashmir and Jammu,” Sharma said.

“In the Jammu region, Poonch district saw the highest voting percentage – 70.42%. While in Kashmir, Ganderbal district topped with polling percentage at 56.28%,” said Sharma.

He expressed confidence that no seat in the council will remain vacant. “There may be some vacant seats in the panchayats, for which elections will be held once the Chilla-e-Kalaam (the 40-day harsh winter period, beginning on December 21 this year) is over,” he said.

Mehbooba Mufti Claims She Has Been Put Under ‘Illegal Detention’

The former CM says she has been detained to prevent her from visiting the family of Waheed ur Rehman, the PDP’s youth wing president who was arrested by the NIA.

Srinagar: People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti was on Friday morning put under “house detention” to restrain her from visiting the family of her party’s youth president, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Wednesday for alleged links to militant groups. The move comes barely 24 hours before Jammu and Kashmir will vote for the first phase of the district development council election in which the Gupkar Alliance is locked in a direct contest with the Bharatiya Janta Party and Apni Party.

In a series of tweets, Mehbooba claimed that she has been detained yet again to prevent her from visiting the family of Waheed-Ur-Rehman Parra.

The former chief minister said for the past two days, the J&K admininstration has refused to allow her to visit Parra’s family in Pulwama. “BJP ministers & their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem in my case,” she tweeted.

The former CM was released last month after spending more than one year in detention in the aftermath of the Centre’s decision to dilute Article 370 on August 5, 2019.

She said she is not being allowed to console Waheed’s family after arresting him on “baseless charges”. “The cruelty knows no bounds. Waheed was arrested on baseless charges & I am not being allowed to console his family. Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed’s family,” she tweeted.

Parra was arrested by the NIA for alleged militant links days after he filed nomination papers for contesting in the district development council polls in his native Pulwama district.

In 2016, Rajnath Singh, then Union home minister and the current defence minister, had praised Parra’s efforts to promote sports in Kashmir.

Waheed Parra. Photo: Twitter/@parawahid

On her Twitter handle, Mehbooba also shared communications from security agencies advising against her planned visit to Pulwama.

The agencies have advised that the visit be deferred, claiming that neither anti-sabotage check nor proper route sanitisation has been done due to the engagement of its manpower in election-related duties.

Talking to The Wire, Iltija Mufti said that everything is being criminalised in Kashmir by the BJP.“We were trying to visit the family of Waheed for the past two days, but they are not allowing us to move out. The superintendent of police in Pulwama is advising against our visit there. How can the police tell us to sit at our home as they cannot provide us with security? It is the duty of the police to provide security,” she said.

Mehbooba has been put under “house detention” just a day before voting will take place for the first of eight phases of the DDC polls.

Since the State Election Commission unveilled the schedule for the polls, the administration of the J&K Union Territory, as well as the Central government, have come under criticism from the opposition parties for not allowing their candidates to campaign.

The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, a conglomerate of six parties including the National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party, People’s Conference, has repeatedly castigated the government for impeding the movement of their candidates.

Also Read: J&K: Are ‘Security Restrictions’ Being Used to Give BJP DDC Candidates an Upper Hand?

The alliance even sought the intervention of the State Election Commission for doing away with these restrictions and impediments.

“A strange and unique feature has come to the fore. Candidates put up by the PAGD are immediately whisked away to “secure locations” in the name of security and confined to those “secure locations”. They are not allowed to canvas, they are completely out of touch with those from whom they are supposed to seek votes,” read a letter from PAGD chairman Farooq Abdullah to the SEC.

J&K DDC Polls: Despite Gupkar Alliance, Parties Are Fielding Proxy Candidates

In a sign of growing mistrust over seat-sharing, the National Conference, People’s Conference and People’s Democratic Party have all ‘consented’ to their party workers standing for the elections as independent candidates.

Baramulla: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), composed of seven parties in Jammu and Kashmir that joined hands last month to fight the BJP in the District Development Council (DDC) elections scheduled for November 28, appears to be falling apart due to mistrust among the partners over seat-sharing. Individual parties, it appears, are fielding proxy candidates from among their workers to stand as independent contestants in the same elections.

For instance, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, though the PAGD gave its mandate to National Conference’s Shabir Ahmad Lone for the Ruhama constituency, Khursheed Ahmad Khan, who is affiliated to the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (PC) led by former sheep and husbandry minister Sajad Lone, has filed his papers as an independent candidate.

Khan denies that he is standing as a proxy for his party. “I am fighting for my own people,” he told The Wire. “I have no trust in this alliance, especially in the National Conference (NC). They have been betraying us for decades and have now unleashed lies about restoring autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir as well as the special position that had been revoked.”

Also Read: J&K: Are ‘Security Restrictions’ Being Used to Give BJP DDC Candidates an Upper Hand?

Khan had voluntarily retired as a deputy superintendent of police with the Jammu and Kashmir Police in 2013 to join politics. In 2014, he had fought the assembly elections as an independent candidate, but after he lost to the NC candidate, he joined the People’s Conference (PC) party.

For the DDC elections this year, Khan had hoped to contest the Ruhama constituency as a PC candidate. “I tried hard to reach Sajad Lone (PC chairman and spokesperson of PAGD), but he didn’t respond. So I decided to fight independently,” said Khan.

Khan believes that Sajad Lone has allied with “merciless” people and has no idea that the PAGD “only benefits and strengthens the NC”.

“In every district in North Kashmir, there are proxy candidates,” Khan alleged. “The NC and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have not objected to their candidates fighting independently where they assume that their candidate could win the seat despite the mandate of the PAGD.”

The fact that workers from the parties that formed the alliance are now standing as independent candidates shows that the PAGD’s mandate decisions were taken without considering the aspirations of the workers of the individual political parties.

Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah

Politics for the people

After J&K lost its special status in August 2019, the erstwhile state’s political parties swore to avoid all election processes until, to use the words of former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, “what has been snatched would be given back”. The mainstream political process in the state went quiet and there was a sense of ‘betrayal’ among the foot soldiers of the different regional political parties.

Almost 14 months later, the announcement of the DDC polls ignited a spark in J&K’s political parties, who are back in action with campaigns and public meetings. However, the announcement of the PAGD caused rifts within each individual party in the alliance after mandates were given for the various seats.

In the Beerwah constituency, the alliance has given its mandate to the NC’s Mohammad Ashraf Lone, a veteran party worker. But the PDP’s Beerwah district president, Nazir Ahmad Khan, is also fighting the election with the PDP’s ‘consent’.

Also Read: Let the Elections To District Development Councils in Jammu & Kashmir Be Free and Fair

“I received a proper mandate and authorisation letter from PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for the Beerwah constituency after she consulted Farooq Abdullah of the PAGD,” said Khan. “But later, Omar Abdullah opposed my mandate and forced the PAGD to give a separate mandate to the NC candidate.”

Khan believes that the decision to give the seat to the NC candidate is based on an old rivalry between Omar Abdullah and himself. He sees himself as more powerful than the NC’s Lone.

On November 24, PAGD chairman and the NC party president Farooq Abdullah appealed to the people of J&K to vote for the PAGD candidates in the DDC polls. In a video released by the PAGD, Abdullah, who has been self-isolating since a member of his household staff tested positive for COVID-19, urged the people to ensure the victory of the alliance candidates by huge margins so that it succeeds in its aim to restore the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Farooq Abdullah addresses a party meeting. Photo: PTI

In Kupwara’s Sugam constituency, the PAGD has given its mandate to Nasir Ahmad Lone, the brother of the NC’s Kaisar Jamsheed Lone, a former member of the legislative assembly. However, the PC’s oldest worker, Habibullah Bhat, who has been with the party since 2002, is also standing as an independent contestant.

For Lone, Bhat is an opponent, not an ally. “To be honest, it is easier for the top leaders of parties to come together for pre-poll alliances or coalitions than it is for on-ground workers and senior party members,” explained Lone, a social worker and a former journalist. He is aware that workers of different political parties have always confronted each other, making it difficult for them to suddenly support each other instead due to an alliance.

“Also, the decision to fight the elections as a single alliance was taken in a very short time. So the party leaders could not ask the workers for their opinions or explain to them the need for the alliance,” Lone explained.

Bhat, who will submit his nomination papers on Friday, has a different reason for defying the alliance’s mandate. He does not object to the alliance or the fact that the mandate was given to the NC, he said. But the nepotism involved in allotting the seat to the former MLA’s brother is unacceptable to him.

“There are so many other NC workers who deserve a mandate, but he [Kaisar Jamsheed Lone] called his brother from New Delhi,” Bhat told The Wire. “We are with PAGD, but not in support of nepotism.”

In the Zadi Chowkibal seat, the PAGD has given its mandate to the PC’s Habibulla Beigh. But Javaid Ahmad Mir, a senior leader of the NC, is also fighting as an independent.

“PAGD decided to choose PC’s candidate here. But a lot of people told me to fight. I chose to fulfil their wish because I have been working for them for years,” said Mir.

When he filed his nomination papers, Mir was asked by his party to clear his stand. Later, he quit the NC.

The Wire tried to reach PAGD spokesperson Sajad Lone for his views, but he has not yet responded. This story will be updated when he does.

Kaisar Andrabi is an independent journalist from Kashmir and tweets at @KAndrabi.

Let the Elections To District Development Councils in Jammu & Kashmir Be Free and Fair

If a level playing field is not allowed and candidates of the Gupkar Alliance are suppressed, the exercise will have scant value.

There are disturbing media reports of leaders and candidates of the Gupkar Alliance in Jammu and Kashmir alleging that while candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are allowed to canvass voters, candidates of the Alliance are prevented from doing so on ‘security grounds’.

NDTV has been running interviews that clearly seem to corroborate the complaint made by leaders of the Alliance in this regard.

Given that “free and fair” elections are mandated by the constitution as the primary “basic feature” of our democratic system, these allegations and reports are worrying.

Clearly, “free and fair” elections cannot be effected if a “level playing field” is not available to candidates of all participating parties.

There is, therefore, a call for election authorities both in the Union Territory and at the Centre to investigate the aforesaid allegations and reports.

We have heard a great deal about the phenomenon of “voter suppression” in the conduct of elections in the US. Surely, Indian democracy ought not to add to that a new phenomenon of  “candidate suppression.”

These reports must especially worry the ruling BJP; its proclaimed support and prospect of victory cannot but be tainted if it turns out that its opponents have indeed been prevented from contesting those claims on a “level playing field” in a “free and fair” electoral exercise. It is in its own long-term interest in Jammu and Kashmir to demonstrate an unquestionable sway among the people, with no need for practices that may sully its credibility.

The administration in the Union Territory cannot argue that security risks are limited only to the candidates of the People’s Alliance, remembering that in the past some months it is political workers of the BJP who have suffered fatal attacks. If, therefore, ruling party candidates can be provided security cover, it is hard to understand why the same cannot be made available to opposition candidates.

Also Read: If Indeed the Gupkar Alliance Is Irrelevant, Why Has the BJP Launched Into a Tirade?

There is also substance in the poser that if the security situation indeed remains so fraught in the state,  why elections to the Councils should have been held at all. But, now that they are being held, surely election authorities and the administration must ensure that campaign facilities are equally available to all candidates in the fray.

If reports about a discriminatory situation are found to be true, and if these remain unattended, the results of the Council elections may carry scant conviction.

Given that the BJP claims to be strongly placed to win the elections, having dubbed the Alliance as merely a “Gup-kar” (gossipy) nuisance, candidates of the ruling party must not allow any stigma to get attached to their projected victory. Nor must a general cynicism with respect to the current electoral exercise be allowed to view, a priori, the exercise as any sort of farcical move in which the decks are thought to be stacked.

Any laxity in this regard would not but hand to the Alliance the excuse to cry foul, and generate a negative opinion, be it internally, or among democracy-watchers worldwide.

There is, therefore, an onus on electoral authorities conducting the current exercise to ensure that no fingers are raised with respect to the return of democracy in the beleaguered Union Territory.

Badri Raina has taught at Delhi University.