From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz SRINAGAR, Oct 16: In a significant setback to Omar Abdullah’s National Conference (NC), the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has bagged both seats of Pahalgam and Batmaloo, in Kashmir valley, in the Assembly by-elections. While as the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has defeated NC’s Rafi Ahmed Mir in Pahalgam, Tariq Hameed Qarra has made the PDP’s first inroads in the NC bastion of Srinagar city by trouncing Irfan Ahmed Shah in Batmaloo. Results were declared at the end of the counting of votes today. According to the Returning Officers, PDP’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed polled 9,056 votes in Pahalgam, defeating his nearest rival—NC’s Rafi Ahmed Mir—with a margin of 5,174 votes. Mir, who had represented Pahalgam in the Legislative Assembly in 1987-1990 period, got just 3,882 votes. In Batmaloo, PDP’s Tariq Hameed Qarra defeated NC’s Irfan Ahmed Shah with a margin of 3,270 votes. While as Qarra got 6,858 votes, Shah polled only 3,588 votes. With declaration of the results, eleven candidates have forfeited their deposits in Batmaloo and two in Pahalgam. Polling for the by-election had been held on October 13th. The Assembly constituency of Pahalgam had fallen vacant due to the resignation of the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti. She had become a member of Lok Sabha from Anantnag-Pulwama in the Parliamentary elections of April 2004. Senior NC leader and MLA Batmaloo Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Shah had passed away earlier this year. Today’s results have come as a major victory for the ruling PDP but as a setback to the largest Opposition party, the NC. Even as the party president Omar Abdullah and the former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah had personally led the campaigning, NC lost both the Assembly segments in Kashmir valley. In reaction to today’s results, the NC spokesman reiterated that the ruling party had resorted to large-scale manipulation, with the help of Police and civil administration, in both Pahalgam and Batmaloo. Quoting the former Ministers and the party’s sitting MLAs, Ali Mohammad Sagar and Dr Mehboob Beg, the NC spokesman alleged the Election Commission of India had ignored all of the complaints from the Opposition candidates. To a large extent, the result in Pahalgam was a forgone conclusion. Though NC’s nondescript Abdul Kabir Pathan had defeated Mufti Sayeed’s wife, Gulshan Mufti, then a Congress candidate, in the Assembly elections of 1996, Mufti’s daughter and the PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti, had dismissed NC’s Rafi Ahmed Mir with a margin of 2,100 votes in 2002. Later, she won the Lok Sabha elections of April 2004 from south Kashmir, while establishing a lead of about 8,000 votes over the NC in Pahalgam segment. However, Mufti Sayeed created history for himself. Inspite of winning the Lok Sabha elections of 1998 as a Congress candidate in Anantnag-Pulwama, Mufti had never been elected as an MLA in Kashmir valley. In 1983, he had contested as a Congress candidate from the twin segments of Bijbehara and Homeshalibugh but he sustained defeat at the hands of the NC candidates. He was not a contestant in the Assembly elections of 1987, 1996 and 2002. Meanwhile, he contested Lok Sabha elections of 1999 as an Independent candidate but lost to NC’s Ali Mohammad Naik. Until the by-elections, Chief Minister Mufti as well as Tariq Qarra were the PDP’s MLCs. With today’s results, PDP has made its first inroads in the NC’s stronghold of Srinagar. In the Assembly elections of 2002, PDP had bagged one-odd seat of Ganderbal in Srinagar district but it failed to get a single seat in the capital city. As Batmaloo went to the PDP today, NC is now poorer by four seats in the city. Independent candidates, Shahjehan Dar and Raman Matoo, besides Mohammad Shafi Bhat of Congress, had captured the urban segments of Zadibal, Habbakadal and Amirakadal, respectively, in 2002. Defeat in Batmaloo is being viewed as the worst possible setback for the NC. Then part of Amirakadal segment, NC stalwart Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Shah had retained Batmaloo in the Assembly elections of 1987. Later, Shah, who officiated as Chief Minister in absence of Dr Farooq Abdullah thrice, retained Batmaloo in the Assembly elections of 1996 and 2002. In command and influence he was next only to the Chief Minister in his party and the Government since 1987. Overruling the recommendations of the party’s rank and file in favour of a senior activist, Sheikh Abdur Rehman, the NC general secretary Sheikh Nazir had fielded late Mohi-ud-din Shah’s son, Irfan Shah, as the party candidate in Batmaloo. Consequently, Sheikh Rehman quit the party he had served for 40 years and on the eve of the by-election, he joined the PDP. According to the NC insiders, most of the NC leaders—including Omar Abdullah and Ali Mohammad Sagar—were not happy with Sheikh Nazir’s insistence of granting the party ticket to Irfan Shah. With PDP using all resources at its command—including blacktopping of roads in violation of the code of conduct—Omar seemed to be the lonely campaigner for the NC. He was joined by some of his colleagues but most of the prominent leaders of the party were conspicuously absent from the campaigning, both in Pahalgam as well as Batmaloo. Omar’s frequent trips to New Delhi and his father’s prolonged stay in London have created a vacuum in the NC in the last two years and their continuous absence from the home province is also believed to have contributed to the PDP’s victory. |
