The PDP has banked on Iltija Mufti, the daughter of party chief Mehbooba Mufti and a third-generation member of the family, to retain its Srigufwara-Bijbehara Assembly seat, a PDP bastion since 1996. The Srigufwara-Bijbehara Assembly seat, earlier known as the Bijbehara constituency before the delimitation exercise of 2022, is going to polls in the first phase of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18.
A Three-Way Contest
This constituency in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district has the least number of candidates — just three — of all the 24 constituencies that will go to polls three weeks from now. The other two candidates in the fray are two former MLCs — National Conference (NC) leader Bashir Ahmad Shah and BJP leader Sofi Mohammad Yousuf.
Iltija Mufti’s Potential Impact
If 37-year-old Iltija Mufti emerges victorious, it would strengthen the PDP’s — and the Mufti family’s — hold on this bastion that they have made their own since 1996. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who founded the PDP in the latter part of his long political career, started his electoral foray with a win from the Bijbehara seat in 1962 as a candidate of the NC faction headed by Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq.
A Legacy of Leadership
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also started her electoral politics from Bijbehara, winning on a Congress ticket. She resigned from the Assembly when the senior Mufti decided to part ways with the Congress and floated his own regional outfit. Mufti loyalist and senior PDP leader Abdul Rehman Bhat won four consecutive elections from Bijbehara till 2014, the last Assembly polls held in Jammu and Kashmir. Bhat has been given the party ticket from the Shangus-Anantnag West constituency this time.
Challenges from NC and BJP
National Conference candidate Bashir Ahmad Shah will be hoping to break the PDP’s stranglehold on this constituency, which was represented by his father Abdul Gani Shah from 1977 to 1990. The oldest political party of Kashmir has invested heavily in Bashir Ahmad Shah, giving him the party ticket several times, even though he lost every time. He was even made an MLC when the NC formed a coalition government with the Congress from 2009 to 2014.
The BJP’s Ambitions in Kashmir
In the intense rivalry between the NC and the PDP for the Bijbehara seat, Yousuf — the 57-year-old BJP candidate — would be hoping to garner votes to give his party the first Assembly seat from Kashmir. Yousuf, who joined the BJP when it was still considered a “taboo” in Kashmir, has been well taken care of by his party. He was made an MLC during the PDP-BJP coalition government.