Mehbooba seeks one more term for ‘course correction’

Arun Joshi

“My workers are the real mujahideen (warriors),” Mehbooba Mufti had thundered. Now she is leading her own campaign  in Kashmir as a lone warrior, fighting for survival where she had stood almost unchallenged for more than two decades.

Initiated into politics in 1996, she knew south Kashmir like the back of her hand. But things have changed. Travelling on dusty roads interrupted by rivulets meandering through blooming orchards, the thin crowds do not skip Mehbooba’s attention. At the picturesque Kokkernag, there is no appetite for polemics this time. Mehbooba, once the star campaigner of the PDP which she heads, is facing a crisis in her political career jolted by her handshake with the saffron party.

Nevertheless, the lone warrior is trying to recapture party citadel Anantnag with single-minded passion and unlimited flow of emotions, seeking one more chance for herself and the PDP for course correction. The Anantnag parliamentary constituency has become unique in electoral history for it will go to the polls in three phases on April 23, 29 and May 6 — a never-before phenomenon that only highlights how difficult electioneering in this constituency is.

“I will stand by you at every step, I guarded you like a “chowkidar (watchman),” she says as she recalls her tenure as Chief Minister (April 2016-June 2018). She makes incessant references to withdrawal of cases against 10,000 stone-throwers and her opposition to ban Jamaat-e-Islami and the indiscriminate crackdown on villages.

 This is her way of telling the people why she had become a thorn in the flesh for her alliance partner BJP, with whom she ran the government for a little over two years, and why the government headed by her fell. “For me, power was never the goal, the welfare and protection of my people was, and is”, she says as she recommits herself to protecting their life and property.

Mehbooba entered the fray under relentless pressure from party leaders. Told she alone could win the prestigious seat,  she now has a reputation to defend: winning all parliamentary and Assembly polls from South Kashmir since 1996 (then as Cong candidate).

The task ahead is arduous. It is not because she faces strong rivals, but because south Kashmir, the bastion of the Muftis, began to doubt the PDP after its alliance with the BJP. Even more damaging was the corruption and nepotism that flourished during the PDP-BJP rule.

South Kashmir is slippery for the PDP. The first two phases of polling in north Kashmir’s Baramulla and central Kashmir’s Srinagar have shown a decline in voter turnout. The fear is this could get worse in the Anantnag constituency.

Her hopes, however, float on the boat of dialogue and insistence on improving ties with Pakistan.