Mehbooba Mufti’s plunge into Lok Sabha polls from Anantnag- Rajouri constituency has made the electoral battle far more challenging than it was anticipated. It will redefine Kashmir politics irrespective of the ultimate outcome on June 4, when results will be out.
She has entered the electoral contest, first since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, both as a victim of anti-Kashmir campaign which she attributes to her former ally -BJP as also that of the “unilateral“ decision of National Conference to contest all three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley without taking PDP, which is part of INDI alliance and also that of now shattered PAGD. She believes that she has been pushed to wall by National Conference leadership – Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. At the same time, she is seeking to turn this challenge into an opportunity to demonstrate herself as a true leader of Kashmir, who speaks and works for them.
Mehbooba has raised her profile to a higher pedestal than being former chief minister, and PDP president for more than 20 years. It is a battle with different contour or context. In short, it is a do or die battle for her, and the last chance to prove that she is a force to reckon with her political fate is not linked to the victory in this particular electoral battle but what would she would represent at the end of the day. She is a great political survivor. She will have to prove that.
Much before the formal announcement of her candidature from all important constituency in Jammu and Kashmir of Anantnag – Rajouri that straddles between Jammu region and Kashmir Valley, Mehbooba had set tone for the political battle as the only one who cares and speaks for rights of the people of Kashmir, whom she describes as “ victims of oppression.”
This thesis is closely linked to scores of youth who have been lodged in jails outside J&K on charges of causing troubles in the past, and at the same time, she has projected herself as a face of democratic resistance to what BJP-led Centre has done to Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre is charged with not only taking away the special status of erstwhile state of J&K and splitting it into two union territories but also enacting laws and opening floodgates to “outsiders” who have taken over control of the natural resources, undermining the identity of the people of Kashmir.
Mehbooba knew what she was up against – a hostile Centre and the most powerful party BJP that places her in the line of dynast politicians, ironically though she was chosen as an ally by the saffron party despite tempering its dynastic politics campaign in the 2014 Assembly polls. BJP had vowed to uproot Kashmir dynasts from the political landscape, but when it came to government formation, it found an ally in PDP, first with her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and after his death, with her. This is irony in the political history of Kashmir. As far as Mehbooba is concerned, she had put everything in her 2014 campaign to keep BJP out of the Valley. The BJP was denounced as enemy number one of Kashmir’s political, ideological, demographic and cultural identity of the Valley, as the saffron party never minced words in telling the people of Jammu and Kashmir that it was against the special status and symbols of J&K. It wanted complete integration. The party, however, had agreed in its Agenda of Alliance with PDP: “While recognising the different positions and appreciating the perceptions BJP and PDP have on the constitutional status of J&K, considering the political and legislative realities, the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K, including the special status in the Constitution of India.”
She has been exploiting this point that PDP had brought BJP to accept its terms and the saffron party could do away with the Article 370 only once it was out of power because of break up between the two parties in June 2018. It is a tough battle for Mehbooba, it is to be seen how she fares this time.
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