Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fielding Tassaduq Hussain Sayeed from Anantnag-Pulwama and Nazir Ahmad Khan from Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency for the by-polls for the two Lok Sabha seats.
The decision to field Tassaduq and Nazir was taken after the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and senior PDP leaders including cabinet ministers met late Monday evening at Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s Jammu residence at Gupkar, sources said.
Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency is going for by-polls on April 9 while Anantnag-Pulwama would witness polling on April 12.
The Anantnag-Pulwama parliamentary seat had fallen vacant after the Member of Parliament from this south Kashmir parliamentary seat, Mehbooba Mufti took over as the Chief Minister of the State on April 4, 2016.
Similarly, the Srinagar-Budgam seat fell vacant after Tariq Hameed Karra, the MP from this central Kashmir seat, resigned from LoK Sabha saying PDP had gone back on its ideals and was treating people “much worse than Nazi forces” and blamed Government of India (GoI) for adding “fuel to fire” in the Valley with its “arm-twisting attitude and imperialistic methods”.
Contesting from the highly militancy-affected Anantnag-Pulwama constituency would be the first test for the 45-year-old Tassaduq, the son of two-time Jammu Kashmir chief minister and former Union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and brother of the incumbent chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who has been better known for his cinematography of Bollywood movies ‘Omkara’ and ‘Kaminey’.
Tassaduq formally ventured into politics on the death anniversary of his father on January 7 this year.
As a teenager, he had left Jammu Kashmir in 1989, and went on to become a cinematographer.
In the past, he had shown keen interest in Kashmir’s apolitical issues like the environment, preservation of heritage, culture, rivers and mountains.
It was during shooting for the ‘Incredible India’ campaign in Kashmir as a cinematographer that Tasadduq said he had felt a strong urge to get involved and help in whatever little way he could.
In the past, Tassaduq has also worked as a social worker in Kashmir and helped a group of youth in Srinagar downtown and other places and set up a trust, ‘Aarasta’, which focused on research and bringing in experts.
He had been actively involved in solving the problem of garbage disposal at the Achan garbage site and decomposing solid waste near Lidder stream in Pahalgam and promised to take an environmental stance on Army’s occupation of meadows for use them as a firing ranges or mountains to set up camps and oppose it strongly.
Last year on January 17, after his participation in the PDP’s Core Group meeting chaired by his sister and party president Mehbooba Mufti at her Fairview residence in Srinagar, speculations were rife that the Tassaduq may join active politics.
Nazir Khan, who had narrowly lost to National Conference Working President and former chief minister, Omar Abdullah in Beerwah in the 2014 Legislative Assembly polls, is the surprise PDP candidate for the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency.
The PDP’s candidate for Srinagar-Budgam seat is the son of Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan, a long-time associate of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
Khan has been in active politics for the past two decades.
Though a political heavyweight, Khan recently rejoined PDP after he defected from Congress.
Welcoming Khan into the party fold, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had said he has a political legacy and is full of enthusiasm to work for the people.
Mehbooba had termed his rejoining as Khan’s “home coming”.
PDP fielding Tassaduq Mufti from Anantnag, Nazir Khan from Srinagar
