Sheikh Abdul Rashid’s party set to contest all Valley seats in Assembly election

Adil Akhzer

Srinagar, July 3

Buoyed by the surprise win in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) headed by jailed Kashmiri politician Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, is set to make foray into the Assembly elections, the party’s top leader has told The Tribune.

‘People looking for change’

Stating that the party was now looking for candidates with a clean record, Ishtiyaq Qadri, chairman of AIP’s political affairs committee, said people in the Valley were fed up with traditional political parties and were looking for a change

The party plans to contest all seats in the Valley and the Pir Panjal and the Chenab region of Jammu. The party has set it eyes on some seats in Jammu as well.

In an exclusive interview in Srinagar, Ishtiyaq Qadri, chairman of AIP’s political affairs committee, said the party would field candidates in all seats in the Kashmir Valley.

“Apart from the Valley, we are also planning to field candidates in parts of the Jammu region like Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua,” he said. “We will spring a big surprise in the upcoming poll.”

The party is boosted by the fact that Rashid secured lead in 15 of the 18 Assembly segments that were part of the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.

Rashid, who contested as an Independent candidate, defeated former chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah by a margin of over two lakh votes. People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone stood third.

The last Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir was held in 2014, in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Elections, first since the abrogation of Article 370, are expected to be held in coming months. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the elections would be held soon and statehood would be granted to J&K as well.

Rashid has been in jail since 2019, when Article 370 was revoked in Jammu and Kashmir. He was summoned by the NIA to New Delhi and was arrested in an alleged money laundering case related to terror funding.

“He will the chief ministerial face of the AIP in the upcoming elections,” said Qadri. Stating that the party was now looking for candidates with a clean record, Qadri said people in the Valley were fed up with traditional political parties. “Many people are approaching us to join the party. We can see there is a lot of interest among youth to join the party,” he said.

During the recent elections, the AIP remained silent on the contentious issues and the campaigning mainly focused on the release of Rashid. Qadri said in the upcoming elections, the main issues would be release of detainees, developmental works and unemployment.

Asserting that the AIP believed in the “Indian Constitution and democracy,” Qadri said it was the “greatness of Indian judiciary and democracy which allowed” the party leader (Rashid) to contest the Lok Sabha elections.