12 Candidates Vie for Sopore Seat Sofar, More Expected
Suhail Khan
Sopore, a town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, where people have always been distant from the election setup and have been boycotting elections for quite some time, but now the ground reality is somewhat different. In the previous ULB (Urban Local Body) elections, people had already shown their participation, and now there is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the upcoming assembly elections, with a long list of candidates emerging.
Where an election festival atmosphere is visible across the Union Territory after the announcement of the assembly election dates, the same is the case with Sopore as well, where the people are enthusiastic about actively participating in this election.
A town that was also known by the name of ‘Chota Pakistan’ now has a changed ground reality, and this is evident from the fact that so far 12 candidates have shown their willingness to contest the upcoming assembly elections.
Sources told Kashmir Despatch that in the upcoming assembly elections, Sopore will not lag behind any other district or town, and the people here will also participate enthusiastically.
According to the sources, these candidates who have shown their interest so far in contesting the assembly elections on the Sopore seat are the testimony to this fact.
Sources said that so far 12 names have emerged, but this number is likely to increase in the coming days.
As per details available with Kashmir Despatch, among the 12 candidates who have so far shown interest in contesting the assembly elections on the Sopore seat are Rizwan Illahi (Independent), Raqib Rashid, Adv Mursaleen, Advocate Latief Mir, Mushtaq Changa, Aijaz Ahmad, Irfan Shah, Fayaz Ahmad Malik, Irfan Ali, Javid Seeru, Reyaz Ahmad, Rashid Dar, and Mudasir Gul.
Meanwhile, Sopore has politically changed a lot in the last few years, and in the previous ULB elections, a lot of people participated, breaking the boycott trend.
Now, the upcoming time will decide whether the Sopore electorate will crown the mainstream leaders or the independent candidates this time.
Pertinently, in the last assembly elections in 2014, Abdul Rashid Dar of the INC party won with 8,429 votes. The runner-up was Nazir Ahmad Naikoo of the JKPDP party. The margin of victory was 2,755 votes. In the 2008 Vidhan Sabha elections, Mohd Ashraf Ganie of the JKN party won with 4,368 votes. The runner-up was Abdul Rashid Dar of the INC party, and the margin of victory was 1,064 votes.
Suhail Khan is a filmmaker, content writer, and freelance journalist.
