Jailed Engineer Rashid stirs up Baramulla fray, may dent Sajad Lone base, give Omar a leg-up

The support bases of Sajad, Fayaz and Rashid, who is popularly known as Engineer Rashid, are mainly centred on Kupwara district, where they would be vying from the same vote pie. This would give an edge to Omar not only on account of his appeal as an ex-CM but also due to the point that the NC has a cadre base spread across the Valley.

Besides Kupwara, the Baramulla constituency encompasses the Assembly segments of three other districts – Baramulla, Bandipora and Budgam.

Although Engineer Rashid, 58, is the founder of the Awami-e-Ittihad Party (AIP), he would fight the polls as an Independent as his party is not registered with the Election Commission.

A two-time MLA from Langate, Engineer Rashid has been a maverick leader, who has often landed in rows on account of his brand of politics that survived on his controversial or extreme political position.

Observers say Rashid may get “sympathy votes” as he will be contesting the election from the Tihar prison, where he has been lodged since 2019 following his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in an alleged money laundering case related to terror funding in the Valley. However, his

protracted absence from his constituency and lack of contact with his workers and supporters is likely to damage his vote bank.

In the 2019 polls, Rashid had emerged as a strong candidate in the Baramulla seat. He came third by securing over a lakh votes, finishing ahead of the PDP and the Congress’s candidates.

Rashid had then garnered 1,02,168 votes (22.41% of the polled votes), which was two times that of the PDP’s Abdul Qayoom Wani and three times that of the Congress’s Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir. The NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone had won the seat by defeating the JKPC’s Raja Aijaz Ali by about 30,000 votes.

Rashid was then supported by bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal’s Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM). The situation has however undergone a drastic change now. And Faesal has returned to the civil services, disbanding his outfit.

This time, the Bramullah contest would be essentially between Omar and Sajad, with the decision of the Congress to support the NC, its INDIA ally, further boosting the ex-CM’s chances.

Sajad is getting support from the non-INDIA parties like the Syed Altaf Bukhari-led J&K Apni Party, which are perceived to be close to the BJP.

A close confidant of slain Hurriyat leader and JKPC founder Abdul Gani Lone, Rashid’s journey from a separatist to a legislator started when he launched a civil liberties movement in Mawar – a cluster of remote hamlets in the Kupwara region. He came under the spotlight in 2000, when he stood up against the “begar (forced labour)” system.

After the assassination of Gani Lone and the split of the People’s Conference into the factions led by his sons Bilal and Sajad, Rashid put his weight behind the latter.

Sajad and Rashid parted ways in 2008, when the former called for a boycott of the Assembly polls. Rashid left separatist politics and entered the poll arena as an Independent candidate from Langate in Kupwara district against stalwarts such as the PDP’s Mohammad Sultan Panditpuri and the NC’s Sharif-ud-din Shariq. Springing a surprise, Rashid emerged victorious.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, Rashid again won, mixing the themes of separatism and development in his campaign to woo the voters.

Rashid’s political career had been fuelled by various controversies. He raked up emotive issues and locked horns with the mainstream parties to survive.

In 2015, Rashid was assaulted inside the J&K Assembly by the BJP legislators for throwing a beef party at Srinagar’s MLA hostel. In the same year, he hoisted the J&K flag at Srinagar’s Pratap Park and demanded that June 7 be observed as the state flag day, protesting against the BJP’s slogan of “ek vidhan, ek pradhan aur ek nishan”.

While Rashid kept his distance from the NC and the PDP, he turned into a detractor of Sajad, with no love lost between them till now.

Rashid had been summoned by the NIA in an alleged money laundering case several times and was finally arrested on August 10, 2019. Booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), he has been in the Tihar jail since, even as the case against him has been pending in a Delhi court.