SRINAGAR: Budgam MLA Aga Muntazir Mehdi on Wednesday made his maiden speech in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, describing the region as going through a difficult phase marked by public hopelessness and an unmet demand for dignity and responsive governance.
Thanking the Chair and fellow members for welcoming him to the House, Mehdi said the people of Jammu and Kashmir were waiting for a government that understood their problems and addressed their aspirations.
He said that despite the Assembly’s limited powers, it remained a vital forum for raising public issues, calling it the last democratic platform where people could attempt to reclaim their rights, identity and political space.
Calling for unity, Mehdi urged members to work collectively for the welfare of people across Jammu, Kashmir, Pir Panjal and other regions, saying all areas were facing serious challenges that required coordinated efforts.
Criticising the current government, Mehdi said promises made in its manifesto had not been fulfilled. He described the Assembly resolution on Article 370 and statehood as weak, alleging that the government had failed to clearly demand the restoration of what was taken away on August 5, 2019.
He said the promise to release political prisoners also remained unfulfilled and claimed that people were still being detained without trial. Mehdi raised concerns over the continued use of the Public Safety Act (PSA), alleged religious profiling and restrictions on religious occasions, including Shab-e-Barat.
Highlighting civic issues, he said the electricity sector, where relief had been promised, had instead become a source of harassment for the public.
In his concluding remarks, Mehdi urged the House not to accept a sense of disempowerment, saying the Assembly must be used to represent people’s aspirations and work towards the restoration of their rights.
Mehdi won the recent Budgam by-election, with the final count confirming the People’s Democratic Party’s victory by a margin of 4,478 votes. The PDP secured 21,576 votes, or 34.19 per cent of the vote share, while the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference polled 17,098 votes, accounting for 27.10 per cent. In the 2024 election, Omar Abdullah received 36,010 votes, or 54.52 per cent of the total votes.
Established in 1962, Budgam has long been a pillar of the JKNC’s electoral structure. Since 1977, the party had consistently held the seat, largely through the influential Aga family, with Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi retaining it three times between 2002 and 2014. His move to the Lok Sabha meant that the PDP’s victory in the 2025 by-election marked only the second major breach of this political stronghold in 53 years.
