Some driven by personal loss, some by wish to uplift women

MEHBOOBA SHADAB, 54
Independent, Batamaloo
A longtime political enthusiast, this resident of Sonawar in Srinagar has contested and lost two parliamentary elections earlier, as a National Conference candidate in 1996 and as an independent in 2009. A postgraduate in psychology from Kashmir University, Mehboba Shadab says she is fighting independently because the “people in my constituency asked me”. “They have been betrayed by all parties, and don’t want me to join any of them,” she says. “I will serve the people and solve all their problems.”
SURAYA BANO, 41
RPI, Lolab
A resident of Wazir Bagh in Srinagar, Suraya Bano hails from Lolab, where she is contesting. Married young, widowed this year and a mother of three daughters and a son, she is promising women a proper education. “I was just 16 when I was married. I studied for two more years but had to drop out. I don’t want other women to get married so young and quit studies,” she says.
Her late husband, Hilal Ahmad Bhat, was a Congress worker. She approached his party, was denied a ticket, and opted for the Republican Party of India instead. “I desperately wanted to contest,” she says.

ASIEA NAQASH, 45
PDP, Hazratbal
This is not her first election: in 2008, she had contested and lost against National Conference president Farooq Abdullah. This time, Asiea Naqash is confident of defeating Mohammad Syeed Akhoon, also of the National Conference, in Hazratbal. The law graduate from Kashmir University is the only woman candidate fielded by Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP in the current elections. “Having done social work, I have got a grasp of the problems of people on the ground,” she says. “I believe that these problems can only be solved only once you are in government”. Asiea is a sister-in-law of a senior PDP leader, MP Tariq Hameed Karra.

RASHIDA MIR, 38
Independent, Kulgam
As a college student, she was often awestruck watching Mehbooba Mufti addressing rallies in Kulgam. “I would think, if she can do it, why can’t I? Now here I am,” she says. Rashida Mir, 38, a diploma holder in civil engineering, wife of an IAS officer and mother of a daughter, is fighting independently. “I would have liked to join a party but is there a clean party? There is dynastic rule everywhere. In the PDP it is father and daughter; in the National Conference and the Congress it is father and son.” Her plank is women’s rights. “Dowry and rape cases are rising and need to be stopped,” she says.

HANEEFA BEGUM, 36
JK People’s Peace Front, Handwara
She lost her husband, who was in the BSF, and her two-year-old son to a landmine explosion in 2003. She and her daughter, now 15, live at Kralpora in Handwara, from where she is contesting. “I have struggled for a decade and want to help all women so that none of them suffers. I sold my gold ornaments and property to campaign for the elections,” says Haneefa. She had contested in 2008, too, on a BSP ticket. Her daughter Ruqaya Hashim recalls Haneefa’s struggle and says, “Although I hate politics, I am going from door to door along with her on her campaign.”