Engineer Rashid, man who defeated Omar Abdullah, faces 'double trouble' in J&K polls

Engineer Rashid's AIP hopes to capitalise on its Lok Sabha performance to make gains in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. (File Photo: PTI)

Engineer Rashid's Awami Ittehad Party(AIP) has come under a concerted attack from the Kashmir-based parties ahead of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. A day after National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party could form an alliance with the AIP and form a government in the UT, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday came down heavily on the fledgling party and accused it of dividing Kashmiri votes.

Rashid, who entered the political fray in 2014 after quitting his job as an engineer, defeated NC's Omar Abdullah in the recent Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla. Rashid continues to be in jail in a case of alleged terror funding under the UAPA.

However, recent days have seen increased activity in the AIP as polls approached. With Rashid in jail and Rashid's son Abrar Rashid now leading the party's campaign, the AIP plans to field candidates to 40-42 seats in the Kashmir region and 5-6 seats in the Jammu region.

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Mufti said it took 50 years for her father and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to found a party and that they still do not have enough resources to field candidates in all seats.

“I want to know, the person (Engineer Rashid) who is in jail fights a parliamentary election – that is good. But who is behind their party that their candidates are contesting everywhere?” the PDP chief asked.

Rashid's entry in the fray in the Assembly elections has also led to Opposition parties sharpening their attacks against the BJP. Alleging that the BJP was propping up Independents and smaller parties as proxies in Kashmir, Omar said that the ruling party at the Centre had struck a deal and it was he who was their target.

The National Conference isn’t the only party making the accusation. Mufti also claimed that the PDP’s Shopian candidate Yawar Shafi Banday was allegedly assaulted by AIP workers in Balpora, the native village of AIP Shopian candidate Raja Waheed, who switched sides from the PDP after he was denied a ticket.

Mufti further claimed that the inaction on part of the police revealed their partisan approach as well as that of the government. Mufti's remarks came after the police called the incident a “scuffle” between workers of the two parties and registered a case of violation of the Model Code of Conduct against both.

The AIP, on the other hand, has dismissed the allegations and pointed out that both the NC and the PDP have been in a government in alliance with the BJP. AIP spokesperson Firdous Ahmad Baba said his is the only party that has no direct or indirect connections with the BJP.

Baba also advised NC and PDP to first decide their line of attack.”After the parliamentary elections, NC and PDP called us Islamic radical elements and now they are labelling us BJP team… Let them first be clear whether we are Islamic radicals or pro-BJP,” he said, according to The Indian Express.

Engineer Rashid’s AIP is the newest entrant in the Kashmir Valley that has traditionally been dominated by the National Conference and the PDP. Rashid’s AIP, founded after Rashid won the Langate Assembly seat in 2014 for a second consecutive term, is hoping to carry the momentum it gained in the Lok Sabha elections into the Assembly polls as well.

Rashid’s candidature enabled mass mobilisation of the youth under the party’s ‘Jail ka badla vote’ campaign. AIP now hopes to leverage its Lok Sabha performance to cement its position as a political force to reckon with in the Valley. AIP had said while announcing its initial list of candidates that it was confident of winning 20 of the 47 seats in the Valley.