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| It's official: Mehbooba to contest by-polls from Anantnag | | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 31: PDP president and J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has finally decided to contest the by-election from the Anantnag assembly constituency, the seat her late father and Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed held after the 2014 assembly elections. Mufti Sayeed had won the seat by a margin of 6000 votes. He had defeated Hilal Shah of Congress. Mehbooba will file her nomination papers on Wednesday.
The polling will take place on June 19. Anantnag was once considered the stronghold of the PDP. It also has considerable presence of the Congress. However, the people of Anantnag disappointed Mehbooba Mufti and the party leaders when Mufti Sayeed was cremated in his hometown. There was a very thin presence of the people. Only about 3000 persons, including police personnel and other security forces personnel, were present at the graveyard. The thin presence had surprised not just the PDP leadership but also the media and non-PDP political parties. It was only natural. After all, Anantnag remained the PDP's pocket borough for years. There was a time when the PDP was considered a two-district party and not even Kashmir-based party and the two districts included Anantnag and the adjoining Pulwama district. In 2002, the PDP had won most of the seats from these two districts and that's the reason the PDP was called two-district party.
The decision of Mehbooba Mufti to contest the by-poll is a bold decision considering the fact that the Kashmiri separatists and opposition parties such as the NC and the Congress have unleashed a no-holds-barred propaganda campaign against her and her government. While the Kashmiri separatists have been terming her government as the "biggest enemy" of Kashmir and accusing her of bartering Kashmiri interests for the sake of power, the NC and the Congress too have been charging her with flirting with the BJP-RSS combine and accusing her of not doing anything for the public. Reports from Srinagar suggest that both the NC and the Congress, which have been working in tandem to corner the Chief Minister and tarnish the image of her government, might join hands against her by fielding a common candidate against her. The Congress and the NC, which have been indulging in politics of competitive communalism and soft secessionism, see in the by-poll an opportunity to cut the PDP to its size. They believe that the defeat of the PDP in the Anantnag by-poll will adversely impact the poll prospects of the Mufti party and help them restore the political space they lost to the PDP after 1999.
It is obvious that the NC and the Congress - apart from separatists - will not leave any stone unturned to mar the poll prospects of the PDP president. She will have to work hard to win the election. If she wins, it will raise the morale of the PDP workers and cadres. And in case the PDP loses Anantnag, it will lose the entire Kashmir Valley. Indeed, the Anantnag by-poll will determine poll outcome will determine the fate of the PDP.
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