‘Giant Killer’: How Engineer Rashid’s entry could impact Jammu and Kashmir elections

The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections threw up a surprise in the Valley when Abdul Rashid Sheikh, popularly known as “Engineer Rashid”, emerged victorious in Kashmir’s Baramulla seat.

Delhi's Patiala House Court  on Tuesday granted interim bail to Sheikh Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, a member of parliament from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency, till October 2 in a terror funding case.

Sheikh’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) last month released a list of nine candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. AIP is expected to field around three dozen candidates in the polls, the first since the abrogation of Article 370 from the erstwhile state.

With Rashid entering the fray, the J&K election is likely to turn into a four-cornered contest with an uncertain mandate. The assembly elections in the UT, the first in a decade, are being held in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1.

The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections threw up a surprise in the Valley when Abdul Rashid Sheikh, popularly known as “Engineer Rashid”, emerged victorious in Kashmir’s Baramulla seat. He defeated National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

Rashid’s election campaign was led by his 24-year-old son Abrar. A dedicated team of volunteers travelled across different towns and villages, spreading his message of hope and change. His incarceration allowed him to position himself as a symbol of “resistance against oppression”.
The sympathy wave for Engineer Rashid drowned the campaigns of heavyweights like Omar Abdullah and Sajjad Gani Lone.

With its foray into the Assembly elections, the party is trying to leverage its Lok Sabha performance to cement its position as a political force to reckon with in the Valley. AIP says it is confident of winning 20 of the 47 seats in the Valley. If they win these seats, then it will hit the regional parties’ bid to reclaim power in the Union territory.

The NC and the Congress have joined hands, reviving their alliance that ended ahead of the 2014 polls. Former CM Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, meanwhile, has announced it will not enter into any alliance. Mufti herself has withdrawn from the race citing the UT status of Jammu and Kashmir. The PDP chief recently said that MP Engineer Rashid should be released.

The AIP will contest largely in the Valley, with two-three candidates in Jammu region, according to reports.

“We will field around 30-35 candidates who will be mostly young intellectual faces with no political background. They will offer a new alternative to the people,” Abrar Rashid told ThePrint. Among the nine faces selected so far are doctors and PhD scholars.

“My father’s candidature resulted in a huge youth mobilisation. The youth came out to participate in elections. They rejected 70 years of dictatorship and dynastic politics,” said Abrar. He is the face of the party in Rashid’s absence but does not hold any organisational post yet.

Who is Engineer Rashid?

Rashid began his political career in 2008 after resigning from his job as a construction engineer and became popular as "Engineer Rashid".  A two-time MLA from the Langate constituency of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, he won from the seat in the 2008 and 2014 Assembly polls. He also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate but was defeated. Rashid was arrested in connection with a 2017 Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case.

In 2005, he was arrested by the special operations group (SOG) in Srinagar for allegedly supporting militants. He faced charges of anti-national activities and was jailed in Cargo, Humhama, and Raj Bagh prisons. However, the chief judicial magistrate of Srinagar later dropped all charges against him on humanitarian grounds.

In August 2019, Rashid was again arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He filed his nomination papers for the 2024 parliamentary elections from jail. He has recently submitted a second regular bail application in Delhi’s Patiala House court.

The court reserved orders after hearing arguments in an in-camera hearing. It is scheduled to pronounce its order on the bail plea on September 4.