SAMEER SHOWKIN LONE
SHOPIAN, Sep 2: With the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) camp visibly divided given the battle over mandate-politics, its main opponent National Conference (NC) is riding high on a horse to win the crucial Wachi-Zainapora Assembly seat, after a wait of 28-long years.
The last time NC had won this seat was in 1996 when Abdul Jabbar Mir had won the elections for the grand old party.
If NC manages to win this seat again, the reason will be Jabbar Mir’s son Aijaz Ahmad Mir, the former legislator from the assembly segment who recently resigned from PDP, and decided to contest independently.
Mir was forced to contest as an independent candidate after PDP top brass preferred an old hand, Ghulam Mohiddin Wani, as the party’s candidate for the constituency.
However, Wani is a lesser known PDP man in the constituency and doesn’t enjoy much support, as told by the workers.
Aijaz Mir said the decision of divesting him of a mandate has not only come as a surprise for him, but has been a shocker to his supporters.
“I had not imagined even in a dream that anyone else would get a mandate for this seat. I have been preparing for this election for the last six years. I am someone who stood with Mehbooba Mufti when everyone else left. I was not even consulted before snatching a mandate from me. It was a political betrayal. This has come as both a shock and surprise for me. I was not even consulted,” Mir told Kashmir Despatch.
So, his supporters forced him to contest independently, he added.
With PDP visibly a divided house now, it has increased hopes for the NC candidate Showkat Hussian Ganaie, who otherwise has been on a losing spree since 2008.
In 2008 Ganaie lost the seat against PDP president Mehbooba Mufti by over 8000 votes.
In 2014 Assembly polls, Ganaie again lost to PDP’s young candidate Aijaz Ahmad Mir by some 1700 odd votes.
With Ganaie this time having an upper hand, but the only man who can dash the hopes of the NC candidate is the J&K Apni Party candidate Advocate Gowhar.
Gowhar, a noted lawyer at District Court Shopian, enjoys his own support base and has all the chances to deliver a surprise verdict on the seat.
Gowhar had, in the recently concluded parliament elections, made a massive statement by polling 5600 votes in his favour, mostly the votes of young and first time voters.
Amid the ongoing battle for the seat, it is a common voter of PDP who stands confused.
“We don’t know what to do. On one hand we want to vote for Aijaz Mir, but at the same time we don’t want to go against the party decision and leadership who have this time fielded a different candidate,” said a group of PDP workers in Wachi.
J&K Apni Party candidate Advocate Gowhar told Kashmir Despatch that he will throw a surprise. “I am the only candidate who talks about realistic issues…all others want votes on emotional politics. I am someone who has a proper roadmap to resolve the issues since I have already identified the issues hammering the overall growth in this region,” he said.
