Srinagar: Buoyed by his jailed brother's win in parliament elections, Sheikh Khursheed, the younger brother of Engineer Rashid, is set to join politics and contest the upcoming assembly elections.
Sheikh Khursheed, 45, who is working as a teacher in the Jammu and Kashmir's education department, is considering seeking voluntary retirement from his job. "I am considering voluntary retirement from services, though I have not yet submitted my resignation. My resignation may not be linked to joining politics, but to some personal matters," Khursheed told ETV Bharat.
Recruited in 2008 as a teacher, he is presently posted in a Government Middle School Mawara in Langate area of the Kupwara district. He has 15 years of service left in the department. Khursheed is likely to contest assembly elections from Langate assembly segment which is the home constituency of Er Rashid which he won in 2008 and 2014 as an Independent candidate.
"There is a lot of uncertainty over the holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. I am weighing the options over contesting the polls," he said.
The two-time former MLA from the Langate assembly segment, Rashid, who had formed Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) in 2013, won the parliamentary elections from the Baramulla seat by defeating former chief minister and National Conference's vice president Omar Abdullah by a victory margin of more than 2 lakh votes.
Rashid has been jailed in Delhi's Tihar jail since 2019 when he was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in alleged militancy funding and money laundering case. His university-going sons-Abrar and Asrar- campaigned for him during the elections.
AIP spokesman Firdous Baba said that the candidature of any leader or contesting candidate will be decided by the party. "The party will decide to field candidates from assembly segments," Baba told ETV Bharat when asked about Khursheed's likely participation in the elections.
