Despite its pro-boycott image Batamaloo is significantly important for both NC and PDP. While NC’s Irfan Shah is riding on his father’s legacy rival PDP might miss strong man Karra’s charisma. Safwat Zargar reports
Pic: Bilal Bahadur
The ascendant trend of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in recent Lok Sabha elections might have sent tides of confidence among its cadres and ground workers, but it has also left the party orphaned of some of its key cards for some of the assembly segments, making it figuratively handicapped for the battle 2014. While as the party insiders point out that the deliberations to find “worthy replacements” are already on, it seems this time it is not the loss which can spoil PDP’s prospects, but the win! One such instance is Batamaloo assembly segment of Srinagar district, where the win of Tariq Hamid Karra in parliamentary elections has left the party baffled over his replacement. According to the sources, PDP hasn’t been able to find any till now.
Batamaloo constituency has largely been loyal to National Conference (NC) in past – with almost 8 times falling in its kitty – out of total 11 elections held since 1957. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004 and 2009, the constituency overwhelmingly voted for National Conference. In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, if analyzed assembly break-up wise, Batamaloo voted for PDP, contrary to the trend it has been showing in the past. The results had led to the sweeping victory of PDP in Kashmir by winning all the three parliamentary constituencies. It also sent Karra to the parliament, leaving Batamaloo vacant.
The constituency stretches from the fringes of city’s heart Lal Chowk to the outskirts in the north as well as central Kashmir kissing peripheries of other districts while trespassing through vastly populated areas like Barzulla, Bemina, Tengpora, Moomina Bad, Qamarwari, HMT, Parimpora, and Lawaypora.
PDP has already announced a list of 60 members to whom it has given mandate for assembly elections 2014. On the other hand, NC,which released its first candidates have retained Irfan Shah as its Batamaloo candidate. Congress also hasn’t come up with a name either.
“We can’t clone Tariq Hamid Karra, because he is a heavy weight,” says PDP Chief Spokesperson Naeem Akhtar. “The party is yet to announce mandate to 27 assembly constituencies and the party high command is in constant deliberations over it,” he says.
On Wednesday supporters of PDP district secretary Srinagar, Abdul Qayoom Bhat from Batamaloo held a protest demonstration and demanded mandate for the party district secretary Srinagar Abdul Qayoom Bhat in the upcoming legislative assembly polls.The protesters later marched to the PDP patron’s Gupkar residence, where Mufti impressed upon them to work for strengthening the party and leave the decision on mandate to the party’s working committee.
PDP says it will fight elections on the “avalanche of issues and problems the ruling government has left,” on the other hand National Conference claims to retain its “lost glory” in battle 2014. PDP seems to be calculative and constantly eyeing the moves made by the rival NC.
“There are almost five months till the elections and there is no hurry over the list of candidates on our side,” says Akhtar. “Our strategy will be in the public domain only after proper considerations and discussions within the party.”
On the other hand, Congress is also unaware about the prospective candidate in Batamaloo, but the party is confident of bagging the majority on its “poor and needful people centric” agenda. “It is the central command of Congress at New Delhi that will identify the candidates and devise a strategy for 2014 assembly elections,” says Muzaffar Parray, senior state congress vice-president.
“Our job is to implement the strategy of the party high command.”
Though being among one of the constituencies known for its election boycott character, Batamaloo has voted in very less number in the elections held since last two decades. In 2002, the percentage was four; in 2008 the voting percentage didn’t cross 20 per cent. However, there hasn’t been any significant influence on the election results.
Since last two assembly elections, the constituency has been a tussle mainly between two parties – National Conference and Peoples’ Democratic Party. NC enjoys a good amount of loyalty in the assembly segment, and perhaps that is the reason boycott factor isn’t a worry at all for the party. NC legislator, Mohammad Irfan Shah, who won the seat in 2008 by margin of 2706 votes against PDP’s Tariq Hamid Karra, is NC’s candidate.
A bachelor’s graduate from Sri Pratap College, Shah, born in 1964, is the son of veteran NC leader and a close associate of Sheikh Abdullah, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Shah who won the assembly seat in 2002 with a victory margin of 842 votes – a number of significant value when compared to the total number of 4171 votes polled in the whole constituency.
“I am not sure about the mandate. It is the party high command that will take the decision,” says Mohammad Irfan Shah of NC and MLA Batamaloo. “There are no particular issues that I would like to focus on in my constituency. My purpose is to work on the manifesto of my party,” he says.
Congress has also won the seat once in 1967. Ghulam Nabi Nowshehri of Jamaat-e-Islami also won the seat once in 1972. But after that, NC’s three-decadal winning streak almost came to a halt when in 2004 bi-elections held after the sudden death of NC’s Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Shah due to cardiac arrest, PDP’s Tariq Hamid Karra broke the winning streak of NC. Even though PDP had started to cement its roots in the segment, NC was quick to recover the constituency in 2008.
However, what will happen to PDP in 2014 in Batamaloo, is a question both the party high command as well as PDP loyalists in the constituency, are facing. The answers seem to be distant and dangerous as well.
As of now Batamaloo has an electorate of 107000 votes approximately. The voting pockets of small communities, living in the colonies of Bemina, Batamaloo and Tengpora along the highway are usual target areas for the politicians in the constituency. With no adequate facilities and lack of basic infrastructure, politicians throng these areas to derive votes at the time of elections.
“We have never seen our local MLA (Mohammad Irfan Shah) since he won the Batamaloo seat,” says Mohammad Yusuf, a government employee from Batamaloo. “Our area doesn’t vote and even if somebody votes, it is just to get the basic facilities and let-up from the sufferings of daily power cuts, water shortage and bad roads.”
The issues and problems in constituency are myriad, so are the grievances of people with the legislators. Though they are not much as to hamper the winning of one among the candidates in the fray for 2014 assembly elections, the previous track record and promise-cum-ground-work ratio is definitely going to play role in the future political fortunes.
“I never saw any developmental work happening in our area,” says Bashir Ahmad, a businessman, from the assembly segment. “All the politicians tail behind people during elections and then vanish when they are in the corridors of the power.”
Bashir says that he has never voted. “I never will.”
Whatever the case, if verified on the graph of serving people, Batamaloo seems to be a bad score-card for the political parties. Howev er, will the PDP wave of parliamentary elections sweep Batamaloo or will it hug the history, is the question, legislators are facing and waiting to be answered.
