A former cop, an ex-IAS officer give NC hope in two Kashmir seats

The first in the family to represent the Pattan seat was Ansari’s father Iftikhar Ansari, who won on the Congress ticket in 1983. In 1987, another Shia leader, Aga Mehmood, won from Pattan, but the seat was wrested back by Iftikhar Ansari in 1996 as a Congress candidate. Iftikhar then moved to the NC, but again won Pattan, in 2002.

In 2006, he shifted to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and this time lost the seat in a by-election to NC candidate Mustafa Kamal. However, in 2008, Iftikhar re-won, as a PDP candidate. After his death, son Imran Ansari contested and won on the PDP ticket from Pattan in 2014.

This time, Imran is contesting on the ticket of Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference.

One of the reasons for the hold of the Ansaris on Pattan is its substantial Shia population, numbering around 35,000. In contrast, in the past, Sunnis largely stayed away from the electoral process.

This time, that equation is set to change, with both the Shias and Sunnis expected to vote in large numbers on Tuesday.

A campaign manager of Bedar says that for them, it is “not a Shia-Sunni binary”. “We have a substantial support base among the Shia Muslims too. They have voted for us (the NC) in the past and we hope they will rally behind us this time also,” he says.

Bedar retired as a senior superintendent of police in 2011, his last posting being in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police. While in the force, he held important posts such as of SSP, Srinagar, and was seen as a proponent of a more “human touch” in the police. In 2018, seven years after his retirement, Bedar joined the NC.

Apart from the Sunni backing, Bedar is counting on Shia leader Aga Syed Mehmood swinging the Shia vote behind Bedar. The Mehmoods are the other influential Shia family in Pattan. While Mehmood had been hoping for the NC ticket from Budgam, which eventually went to NC vice-president Omar Abdullah, the party managed to bring him around and he campaigned for Bedar.

The NC is also taking heart from the party’s good performance in the Pattan Assembly segment in the recent Lok Sabha polls. While Omar himself lost from the Baramulla parliamentary seat that Pattan is a part of, in the Assembly segment, the NC came first, followed by the People’s Conference’s Sajad Lone.

While the Baramulla winner was Engineer Rashid, his candidate is not given much of a chance in Pattan, and it might all come down to where his votes go come Tuesday.

On the fringes of Pattan, the Gulmarg Assembly constituency, housing the famous ski-resort, is also witnessing a keen contest, between former minister and Apni Party candidate Ghulam Hassan Mir and bureaucrat-turned-politician Farooq Ahmad Shah of the NC.

While Gulmarg was considered an NC bastion, in 2002, Mir – then a PDP candidate – won, stunning then sitting MLA and NC president Farooq Abdullah’s brother Mustafa Kamal. In 2008, Mir retained the seat but as a candidate of the J-K Democratic Nationalist Party that he founded after parting ways with the PDP. In 2014, the PDP regained the seat, with its candidate Abbas Wani defeating Mir.

As an IAS officer, Shah was seen as an able administrator, with stints in posts such as Director, Tourism; Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar and Anantnag; and Secretary, Tourism. He is well-regarded for his role in pushing tourism in the Valley, and respected in both NC and PDP circles.

He took voluntary retirement two years before his retirement to join the NC.

Apart from Mir and Shah, there are 11 candidates in the fray from Pattan, including the PDP’s Shabir Ahmad Mir and Awami Ittehad Party’s Adil Nazir Khan.