J&K polls: Sajjad Lone’s political journey at crossroads, make or break for him

A fourth contestant, Ajaz Ahmad Sofi, belongs to Awami Ittihad Party of Engineer Rashid who, too, graduated from the late Lone’s political nursery. “If Sajad wants to become CM, why did he field a dummy candidate in 2002 rather than contest himself? Forty thousand lives would have been saved,” Ajaz says. Sajad’s aspirations to the CM’s chair have been a highlight of his campaign.

At any other time, no one would have bet on Lone’s son losing in what was the father’s bastion. Lone hailed from a remote village but his party, the People’s Conference, had its centre in Handwara. His story was a classic political thriller: a poor village boy fights hardship to become a lawyer, join politics and set up a vibrant party that takes on the might of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Lone’s party was a key constituent of a loose alliance to counter the NC-Congress alliance that came up along with the Muslim United Front, a conglomerate of political and religious groups. PC had fought the elections separately but were joined in a common cause against the rivals turned friends NC and Congress.

He went into separatist politics after a poll debacle in 1987. Lone lost his seat to Ramzan by 10 votes in 1983; in 1987, amid allegations of rigging, he lost to Ramzan by 430 votes. Along with Lone, several of his MUF friends joined the separatist movement; his party’s support base was primarily restive young men who, too, would join the movement.

Although Lone was once close to the JKLF , it was Al Barq, an outfit born in mountainous north Kashmir, especially Kupwara, that came to be seen as an armed wing of his party.

Lone was killed in 2002. This was when Sajad came into the limelight, with an outburst against Pakistan and his father’s colleagues in the separatist camp. He fielded proxy candidates in the assembly elections held months later, leading to a split in Hurriyat Conference. While Syed Ali Shah Geelani wanted the ouster of People’s Conference, the faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq didn’t agree because PC’s representative in Hurriyat wasn’t Sajad but his elder brother Bilal Lone. In the split, Sajad’s faction stayed out of Hurriyat.

Articulate but mercurial, Sajad tried to position himself as a fresh voice representing azadi — but without Pakistan — and regularly questioned the “follies” of the separatist leadership. In 2007, he came up with a vision document for Kashmir, Achievable Nationhood, a follow-up to a meeting he had with then prime minister Manmohan Singh. New Delhi didn’t respond, however, and Sajad went in another direction: during the Amarnath land row in 2008, he became a self-appointed representative of the separatist movement on television. His politics seemed to have become radical and he even talked about a “Muslim Kashmir” identity and favoured an opt-out proposition for the Hindu majority Jammu belt. Amid controversy, New Delhi pushed him into the political wilderness.

Today, he regrets not having contested in 2008, when he could have won a few seats in Kupwara. And when he did contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, it marked full circle for the party his father had founded. He lost that election, and again in 2014.

Now, his growing closeness to the BJP, his meeting with and subsequent praise of Narendra Modi, and talk of a possible post-poll alliance have taken him to a new extreme his late father would never have anticipated.

Where his father built his political career brick by brick, Sajad believes that if he has to win an election, he needs New Delhi on his side. Sources say the PDP was keen on an alliance but he refused. The reason he has warmed up to Modi is the possibility of the BJP sweeping Jammu; he could then hope to be CM in a coalition.

Consequently, Sajad has sealed his fate. His opponents allege he has brought “BJP despite its anti-Kashmir, anti-Muslim” agenda into the valley; this saffron shadow will follow him. The separatists look at him as a “traitor”. That is why the contest in Kupwara is not just about its seats.

The seat

1967: Abdul Gani Lone (Congress) won uncontested
1972: Lone (Congress) defeated Sahrif-ud-Din (independent)
1977: Lone (Janata Party) defeated Sharif-ud-din (NC)
1983: Ch Ramzan (NC) defeated Lone (People’s Conference)
1987: Ramzan defeated Lone
1996: Ramzan defeated Ali Mohd Dar (Cong)
2002: Ghulam Mohideen Sofi (PDP) defeated Ramzan
2008: Ramzan defeated Sofi
2014: Ramzan vs Sofi vs Sajad

89,910 voters in 2014 (46,589 men, 43,321 women)