Asif Iqbal
Srinagar, Jun 4 : Jailed politician Abdul Rashid Sheikh, aka Er. Rashid, has pulled a major upset defeating two political bigwigs – Omar Abdullah and Sajad Gani Lone – to win the Baramulla Lok Sabha segment.
Maintaining a formidable lead from the onset of the counting process, Er. Rashid’s vote count saw a constant increase even as the counting progressed. The steadiness in the vote count in favour of jailed politician made both Omar Abdullah and Sajad Gani Lone give up too early.
Er. Rashid, who amassed a total of 472481 votes, defeated his nearest rival Omar Abdullah by a margin of 204142 votes. Similarly, Sajad Gani Lone who bagged a total of 173239, fell short of 299242 to the AIP patron.
Mir Fayaz of PDP on the other hand stood at a distant fourth position, witnessing a total of mere 27488 votes polled in his favour. Suraiya Nissar, Independent, one among the two female candidates contesting on the seat, bagged 21618 votes.
Accepting his fate while the counting was underway, Omar Abdullah taking to ‘X’, as per GNS, wrote; “I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. I don’t believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to but the voters have spoken and in a democracy that’s all that matters (sic.).”
‘Wanting to make a difference’, Sajad Gani Lone while congratulating the jailed politician with a seemingly heavy heart wrote, “With all humility at my command I accept defeat. And it is time to congratulate Engineer Rashid. I wanted to make a difference. I thought we should be empowered economically, socially and politically to be able to make a difference and be counted. We had suffered a lot in the past 30 yrs and been robbed of all our dignity (sic.)”.
Spearheading the political campaign in absence of his father, Abrar Rashid, made sure to hit every nuke and cranny of the Baramulla constituency to ultimately see people rallying behind him. The campaign hit a crescendo as people from different walks and sections of life, especially former leader of DPAP Shoaib Nabi Lone among others, extended their support to the party.
Notably, Er. Rashid, accused in an alleged money laundering case, continues to remain behind the bars for almost five years now.
While Omar Abdullah said that he believes that Er. Rashid’s victory won’t hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation, the supporters and well-wishers of the jailed politician on the other hand voted with an aim to see their leader ‘a free man’.
While Er. had garnered a little over one lac votes in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the people in an unexpected show of support for the politician this time around voted en-masse to hand their leader a landslide victory – over four times of what he bagged last time.
With a clear mandate to the incarcerated political leader, many politicians in Jammu and Kashmir have asked the Government of India to reciprocate accordingly and set the politician free to let him interact, meet and serve his people.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference has wrested Srinagar and Anantnag seats, where Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi and Mian Altaf Ahmad have defeated two PDP candidates Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra and former Chief of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir state Mehbooba Mufti respectively.
While NC’s Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi bagged 356866, PDP’s Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra garnered 168450 – conceding a defeat by 188416 votes.
Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party’s Mohammad Ashraf Mir saw a total of 65954 votes polled in his favour.
Meanwhile, two sitting MPs Dr. Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore have laid their claim on two seats in Jammu province by defeating Congress’ Ch. Lal Singh and Raman Kumar Bhalla respectively.
Dr. Jitendra Singh bagged 571076 votes as against Ch. Lal Singh’s 446703 votes on Udhampur segment, Jugal Kishore contesting on Jammu segment amassed 687588 as against Raman Bhalla’s 552090 votes.
In Ladakh, Haji Mohammad Hanifa garnered 65259 votes to defeat INC candidate Tsering Namgyal who earned 37397 votes and BJP’s Tashi Gyalson 31956 votes – to win the lone seat. (GNS)
