In Mian Altaf Ahmad, NC gets a leader in South Kashmir to take on Mehbooba, even as ST status to Paharis disturbs the status quo
When Mian Altaf Ahmad expressed his indecision about contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat over health concerns last month, a perturbed Omar Abdullah rushed over to his home village Babanagri, a spiritual seat of the Gujjars. An hour-long meeting later, Altaf issued a video statement saying he is ready to contest.
It was a moment of great relief for the National Conference (NC), which has found in Altaf, 67, a spiritual leader revered by the Gujjar and Bakerwal community across Jammu and Kashmir. The Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, especially its newly added Rajouri and Poonch parts, has a substantial population of Gujjars and Bakerwals, and the NC has so far failed to create a leader of prominence in the area.
The NC also values a win here due to who is in the other corner – former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, and the Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Manhas. For Mufti, left out of the NC-Congress alliance, it is a battle to retain her political legacy. Manhas, on the other hand, is a leader of the Pahari community, which has been wooed by the BJP with ST status, and is seen as enjoying the BJP’s tacit support.
The People’s Conference, whose leader Sajad Lone is taking on Omar, the NC vice-president, in Baramulla, has officially offered its backing to Manhas.
In his campaign, Altaf has kept Mufti in his sights. “In 2014, a political party (an apparent reference to the PDP) said only they can save Jammu and Kashmir from the BJP. They sought votes on this basis,” he says at a well-attended rally at Ashmuqam in Pahalgam. “Later, that same political party made an alliance with BJP. Today, they are saying only they can resolve (Kashmir’s) issues, but they are the ones who actually created them.”
The Mian family to which Altaf belongs has never lost an election, including Altaf himself, and his father Mian Bashir and grandfather Mian Nizam ud din, though their political loyalties have shifted between the NC and Congress. A member of the family represented the Kangan Assembly segment falling under the Srinagar parliamentary seat continuously from 1962 till 2014 (when Assembly polls were last held in J&K), barring only 1983. That year, Altaf’s father Mian Bashir contested from the Darhal Assembly seat in Rajouri, and won.
Altaf, a resident of Wangat village in Kangan in Central Kashmir, is a law graduate and a four-time MLA from Kangan, having won it from 1987 to 2014.
What has helped the family retain the winning streak is the loyalty of the Gujjar community towards the Mian family, regarded highly by the Gujjars as their religious and spiritual guides. Mian Bashir also played a significant role in getting ST status for the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities.
However, in his first parliamentary election, Altaf is facing two hurdles – the deepening ethnic divide between the Gujjar and Paharis, especially after the Centre also extended ST status to the Paharis just before the elections, and the “non-native” tag. The Opposition has said Altaf has been “imposed” on the people of South Kashmir.
Altaf has tried tackling this in his speeches, telling a crowd comprising Gujjars and Kashmiris at Ashmuqam: “They say I don’t belong to this constituency, I don’t have a vote here. But I definitely live here… When I go to Parliament, it would be (as if) everyone from Anantnag is in Parliament.”
During his campaign for Altaf, Omar said: “When she (Mufti) fought elections from Srinagar, while talking about how she was from Anantnag, then everything was fine. Now when Altaf sahib is contesting, they raise this issue.”
Another challenge for Altaf is that the Gujjars and Bakerwals are nomads, who migrate as per the weather. The Anantnag-Rajouri election was originally scheduled for May 7, but was delayed till May 25 by the Election Commission, citing bad weather conditions. However, in the meantime, a sizeable chunk of the Bakerwals started their annual summer migration to the upper reaches of the Valley and will end up not voting.
A Gujjar leader told The Indian Express that anything between 50,000 and 80,000 voters of the community as well as of the Bakerwals will not be able to vote as they have moved out of Rajouri and Poonch.
The NC and PDP have been alleging that the elections were delayed to facilitate Manhas, who is a Pahari leader from the Valley and hence not as dependent on the Gujjar-Bakerwal vote.
Altaf’s supporters call him the only leader who can bridge the gap between communities. “He commands respect among everyone — Gujjars, Paharis and even Kashmiris. That is why we need him the most,” says an NC leader from Anantnag.
NC rivals, however, accuse the party of playing into the hands of the BJP. “The BJP ploy is to divide communities for its benefit,“ says a PDP leader in South Kashmir. “Just for vote bank politics, they (the NC) fielded a Gujjar candidate. This will further deepen the Pahari, Gujjar and Kashmiri ethnic divide. By fielding him, the NC has actually done what the BJP wanted.” Source
