Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): In the much anticipated upcoming assembly elections in Jammu Kashmir, twin seats Khanyar and Hazratbal in downtown Srinagar, once separatism hotbed, will witness an electoral battle between father-son duo of grand old party National Conference against their respective opponents on the two seats.
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are being held in the union territory after a decade and a changed political situation and delimitation in the aftermath of Article 370 abrogation.
NC general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, who is a six time legislator from Srinagar's Khanyar segment, is trying his fortune seventh time and it seems the party's loyal soldier has a cake walk even as the constituency has been gerry-mandered after delimitation. Sagar is pitched against a People's Democratic Party (PDP) newbie Tafazul Mushtaq. In this segment 91226 voters will decide their fate and that of other candidates in the fray.
Downtown has been a hotbed of separatism and a loyal bastion of NC's old rival late Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq. His son Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is the chief khateeb at the valley's grand old Jamia Masjid has a massive following in the area. Downtown has been the hub of poll boycott but NC has been emerging the winner since 1983, especially the Khanyar seat.
Ali Sagar has represented Khanyar segment since 1983. Uptill 1983, Khanyar was known as Zainakadal. Khanyar is known as the gateway to the downtown area of Srinagar after a gate, named as Bab-ul-Iqbal, was built in 2018.
His son Salman Sagar, who is the provincial youth president of NC, is contesting his first assembly election from Hazratbal where he is pitted against former PDP minister Asiea Naqash who had won the seat in 2014. Naqash was a minister of state in PDP-BJP alliance. In the 2014 assembly polls, Naqash had polled 13231 against her NC rival Mohammad Syed Akhoon who had got 9825 votes.
The National Conference had won the Hazratbal seat in 2002 and 2008 elections by good margins but in 2014 the voters put thier faith in PDP's Naqash. This time the senior woman politician will be locked with the NC's new face and 112541 votes will decide the fortune of the candidates.
The junior Sagar said that despite his father being undefeated from Khanyar since 1983, no election is a cakewalk. In 2014 elections, Ali Sagar had a close contest with PDP candidate Khursheed Alam who had polled 5332 votes while the senior Sagar had got 6330-the only time Sagar had seen a close contender to the seat. Alam is contesting this election from the Eidgah segment of the city.
"We are going to the people to seek their support. People are facing a lot of issues from denial of rights to lack of basic amenities," Salman told ETV Bharat.
His opponent Asiea Naqash said that in elections, faces or parties do not matter for the voters. "What matters is the candidate who has a plan for resolving grievances and challenges of the people," Naqash told ETV Bharat.
She said that after delimitation many new areas were added to the Hazratbal segment, but the "people are the same, their problems are the same, and thus delimitation does not matter much in Srinagar."
NC's Salman said that the delimitation has altered the constituency map of Srinagar; so have been Khayar and Hazratbal. "But from the voting pattern of recent parliament elections, our party got massive support in all eight constituencies of Srinagar. We are hopeful that the citizens will support us again," he said.
Srinagar, which has eight assembly seats will go for polling in the second phase when 26 constituencies are slated for polls. Jammu and Kashmir which was downgraded into a union territory on August 5, 2019 when article 370 was abrogated, is scheduled for polls from September 18 when 24 seats are going to vote in the first phase.
