PDP eyes Gujjar, Bakerwal votes in Jammu

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 20

With PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti announcing to contest all six parliamentary seats of Jammu and Kashmir, the party is banking on the ‘decisive’ vote of tribal communities — Gujjars and Bakerwals — in two parliamentary constituencies of the Jammu region.

In a bid to strike an emotional chord with the two communities and exploit sensitive issues, the party claimed that Mehbooba as Chief Minister during the previous PDP-BJP coalition regime, “tried her best to ensure justice to the Bakerwal family after the infamous Kathua rape-murder case and to protect their rights on forest land.”

The PDP’s attempt to woo Gujjars and Bakerwals is set to upset the NC-Congress alliance’s applecart as the party, which had garnered over 1.68 lakh votes from the Jammu-Poonch seat during the 2014 parliamentary elections, has managed to penetrate various Assembly segments, particularly Rajouri and Poonch districts. The party had won three Assembly seats — Rajouri, Poonch and Darhal — in the last elections.

The NC has already alleged that it had “credible information” about “the PDP soliciting the advice and direction of the BJP for fielding candidates, convenient to it, for the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur seats to facilitate division of anti-BJP votes in order to ensuring the victory of BJP candidates.”

A senior PDP leader, who wished not to be named, said, “We were not in favour of entering into a pre-poll alliance with any party because we did not want to dishearten the PDP cadre. Our party president, as the CM, worked tirelessly and fearlessly for the betterment of Gujjars and Bakerwals in the region.”

“The people of these communities are wholeheartedly supporting the PDP because Mehbooba ji tried to protect their rights through the Tribal Affairs Ministry after she directed the administration that ‘no tribal will be harassed during any anti-encroachment drive on forest land’. She also did not budge from her stand on delivering justice to the Bakerwal girl from Rasana who was brutally raped and murdered last year,” the leader said.

Another senior leader said the PDP had been conducting special interactions with the heads of all hamlets of Gujjars and Bakerwals to ensure large-scale their mobilisation for the upcoming poll.

According to Gujjar scholar Javaid Rahi, there are around 5 lakh votes of Gujjars and Bakerwals communities on the Jammu-Poonch seat, while the number of their votes in the Udhampur-Doda seat is around 3 lakh. The Jammu-Poonch constituency has 19,83,136 voters while the number of electors in the Udhampur-Doda seat is 16,47,403.

“They (Gujjars and Bakerwals) will not only play a decisive role but also prove to be a winning factor on both the seats if they are supported by other community voters,” Rahi said.

Mufti seeks support of religious heads 

As the Lok Sabha elections are inching closer, the PDP has started mobilising Muslim religious heads, seeking their support in the polls. Mehbooba Mufti visited a shrine at Kalakote in Rajouri district on Wednesday and sought the support of its religious head in the parliamentary elections. “The religious head has been associated with the PDP since long,” a party source said, adding that “the party has begun mobilising Muslim religious heads to garner support for the party candidates on both seats of the Jammu region”