New Delhi: The people of Jammu and Kashmir have rejected separatists and former militants who contested the assembly elections as Independents. As they chose to vote for mainstream parties, 28 former militants and separatists, including 10 candidates backed by the Jamaat-e-Islami and others by the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), bit the dust.

Lok Sabha MP and terror-funding accused Engineer Rashid’s AIP fielded a total 35 candidates. All, except Rashid’s younger brother Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh, were trailing. Sheikh won from Langate by a margin of 1,602 votes.

Akram is a National Conference (NC) rebel who had won the seat in the 2014 assembly polls as well. Khan, Kullay, and Sharma are also former NC leaders.

All the candidates backed by the banned Jamaat were trailing, including Hafiz Mohammad Sikandar Malik from Bandipora, Sarjan Ahmad Wagay from Ganderbal, Zaffer Habib Dar from Central Shalteng, and Sarjan Ahmad Wagay from Beerwah.

Also Read: Hafiz Sikandar, 1st to contest J&K polls while wearing GPS tracker, finishes 6th in Bandipora

NC ahead on 41 seats

Jammu and Kashmir voted for a 90-member assembly in three phases from 18 September onwards. Crucially, it was the region’s first assembly election in 10 years.

The main parties in the fray were the INDIA bloc’s National Conference (NC) and Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). At 365, the election saw the second-highest number of independent candidates since 2008. This had been expected to queer the pitch for mainstream parties.

As of 4 pm, the Congress-NC alliance secured a clear majority, winning 46 seats and leading on two others in the 90-member assembly.

Srinagar-based political scientist Aijaz Ashraf Wani said, “Whatever ground reports I had showed that the label that was given to them did manage to stick. The narrative that they were ‘proxy BJP’ candidates stuck to the people’s minds and that they were only being used to cut into the votes of NC-Congress.”

At the same time, Wani said the fact that BJP also did not field as many candidates in the Valley despite its leaders maintaining that the government had done a lot of development work also gave some credence to this narrative.

“Even BJP leaders kept maintaining that a number of independent candidates were contesting the elections and if need be they could reach out to like-minded people. So people of Kashmir it seems were clear in opting for a formidable force which in this case proved to the NC-Congress alliance,” he added.

Fresh alternative for voters

Jailed on terror-funding charges, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, better known as Engineer Rashid, campaigned for the assembly elections after he was granted interim bail. The Baramulla MP’s AIP was meant to offer a fresh alternative to voters.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious-political organisation that has been banned by the Centre since 2019, indirectly participated in the contest after nearly four decades—it backed 10 independent candidates. These candidates also drew huge crowds at their rallies, giving veteran leaders a run for their money.

Many political experts had maintained that Jamaat’s decision to back candidates could be a tactical move to shed its separatist tag and hence it was not merely limited to winning or losing a seat.

While former militants and separatists have sporadically contested elections in J&K in the past, what distinguished the polls this time is not only how many of them contested but also that many contested as a bloc—such as the candidates backed by Jamaat or under the banner of the AIP.

During campaigning several political parties and leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, had questioned the entry of Jamaat-backed candidates. Among them, many had labelled such candidates “proxies of BJP”—a charge they denied.

Since his release from Tihar, Engineer Rashid faced persistent questions about his political ties, particularly with the BJP. The AIP chief consistently denied any connections with both the BJP and the INDIA bloc.

Commenting on the impact of campaigning by the Independents, political commentator Ahmed Ali Fayyaz had earlier told ThePrint, “For an average Kashmiri, that such a huge number of separatists or Jamaat-backed candidates are contesting shows these separatists are permitted to contest the election, with the calculation that they will cut away votes from traditional political parties.”

Noor Ahmad Baba, a Srinagar-based political scientist, had said the Jamaat’s move might have some impact in terms of eating into the vote share of other parties but it is unlikely they will win seats immediately.

“Naturally some impact will be there. Looking at their history in electoral politics, which was many years ago, they have had some degree of impact in electoral politics but not beyond that. Some of its candidates may end up giving a stiff competition to the other candidates,” he had told ThePrint.

Jamaal active in politics till 1987

The candidates backed by the Jamaat were interesting with most of them being young and educated. Nine of the 10 were also part of the organisation before it was banned.

Among the top contenders was Kalimullah Lone, 35, who was contesting from Langate, Engineer Rashid’s home constituency. He has a PhD in computer science from National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, and is the son of a veteran Jamaat leader.

Jamaat-backed Sayar Ahmad Reshi also proved to be a challenge for the region’s only Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.Y. Tarigami who had won four assembly elections in a row since 1996.

The Jamaat was active in J&K’s electoral politics until the 1987 election boycott when there were allegations of widespread rigging. It contested parliamentary elections in 1969 and 1971 and panchayat elections in 1969 and 1974 under its own banner.

In 1963, Jamaat-backed Independent candidates had fought in Panchayat elections. The government banned the Jamaat months before Article 370 was scrapped in 2019 for being in “close touch” with militant outfits and to prevent “escalation of secessionist movement” in the region. And in February this year, the Modi government extended the ban under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

(Edited by Sanya Mathur)

Also Read: Engineer Rashid’s brother leads by over 4,100 votes in high-stakes battle in J&K Langate