As mud falls on the big winners and losers of the parliamentary elections, there is much to be gleaned from the performance of four people who were in the spotlight in the campaign: People’s Democratic Party’s Irtiya Mufti and Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra. . (PDP), Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh, brother of engineer Abdul Rashid and Awami Ittehad Party’s Langgate candidate, and Aijaz Gul, younger brother of 2001 parliament attack convict Afzal Gul. Mr.
PDP leader Irtiya Mufti lost his family stronghold, Bijbehara. (file)
PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti’s 36-year-old daughter Irutiya lost her electoral debut from the stronghold of Srighuwala Bijbehara, which her family had fielded since 1996. Mehbooba had chosen not to contest the election.
Irtiyya, who appeared on the scene after her mother was detained by the central government ahead of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5, 2019, was joined by Bashir Ahmad of the National Conference (NC).・It was contested by only two candidates, Mr. Veeri and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Sophie Yusuf of the BJP.
Mr. Vili dominated the vote counting from the beginning and won, defeating Mr. Mufti by a margin of 9,770 votes. Mufti was able to secure 23,529 votes against his opponent’s 33,299 votes.
“I accept the verdict of the people. The love I received from the people of Bijbehara will always stay with me. I would like to thank my PDP staff for their hard work throughout this campaign,” Mufti said. I wrote to X.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pala of the PDP Youth Party, who was contesting from the Pulwama assembly seat, defeated North Carolina’s Mohammad Khalil Band from Pulwama, giving some consolation to the party.
Mr. Pala, who is also a DDC member from Pulwama, got 24,716 votes while Mr. Bandh got 16,568 votes, giving him a huge margin of 8,148 votes.
The constituency has a history of violence, including the February 2019 attack on a CRPF bus on the national highway in Lethopora in which 40 jawans were killed. The attack changed the security and political landscape in Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen several attacks since then.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Pala fought a fierce campaign for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, but despite securing 177,000 votes, was defeated by NC’s Agha Syed Ruhra. He lost to Mr. Mehdi.
Para, a former secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council, is considered close to Mehbooba Mufti and is one of the most active youth workers in the party. He supported the PDP even when the party was rocked by deserters immediately after the abrogation of Article 370.
The NIA had arrested Parra in January 2021 on suspicion of having links with militant groups, but the PDP maintained that all charges were baseless. Although he was granted bail in 2020, he was arrested again by the CID wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Mr Parra was first arrested under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in November 2020, three days after submitting his candidacy for the District Development Council elections. After spending 17 months in prison, the PDP leader was released in May after the High Court granted him bail in 2022.
AIP candidate Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh from north Kashmir’s Langate district won the constituency, defeating People’s Conference’s Irfan Sultan Panditpuri by a margin of just 1,602 votes. In a close contest, Sheikh received 25,984 votes to Padhispuri’s 24,382 votes.
Sheikh’s victory was the only consolation for AIP, led by his brother Engineer Rashid, who ran a tough election campaign and contested 35 seats but failed to win any other seats.
Rashid, who was elected MLA from the constituency in 2008 and 2014, was leading from this assembly segment by a margin of over 20,550 votes. The party was unable to repeat its spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha, when Rashid defeated North Carolina Vice President Omar Abdullah. Mr Sheikh, a government teacher, resigned from his post in June shortly after his brother’s victory.
But unlike the energetic Rashid, Khurshid Sheikh is soft-spoken, campaigning door-to-door, and has rarely interacted with the media.
Meanwhile, Ajaz Ahmad Gul, the younger brother of Afzal Gul, who was convicted in the Parliament attack in 2011, had also submitted his candidacy as an independent from Sopore.
But the 58-year-old distanced himself from his brother from the beginning. However, he failed to make any impact and received only 129 votes. Sopore defeated North Carolina’s Irshad Rasool Kher, who received 26,975 votes.
