Yawar Hussain
Srinagar: DD, As Budgam threw a surprise by electing Aga Muntazir Mehdi as their representative in the legislature, the political grapevine in the run-up to the polls witnessed a huge influx of rumours, which the news outlets couldn’t report, as they couldn’t be verified. However, the real politics of this election lies between these rumours.
The most dominant rumour of the election started soon after the ruling National Conference’s (NC) central Kashmir parliamentarian Aga Syed Ruhullah announced that he won’t be campaigning for his party owing to differences on the approach the union territory government has taken on contentious issues after it was sworn in last year.
An unverified meeting of Ruhulllah with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti and their subsequent flight to Delhi sent the rumour mills grinding in the Valley. While neither meeting could be verified independently, the NC leaders, in off-record conversations, added impetus to it.
This rumour cemented further after the results when PDP’s winning march in Budgam echoed with slogans to praise Ruhullah, who has represented the seat thrice since 2002. The posters of Ruhullah surfaced across the celebratory marches, lending further fuel to speculations that his Mustafayi vote had gone to the PDP candidate.
On the other side of the political aisle, the NC candidate, Aga Syed Mehmood, who lost by over 4400 votes, was initially rumoured to have expressed his desire not to contest the election. The rumour was that he had spread the rumour of not contesting so that he could get access to Aga Syed Ruhullah’s inner circle and report everything back to the NC leadership. Furthermore, it was rumoured that Mehmood slipped out of Ruhullah’s house just hours ahead of his candidature being announced by the party.
Interestingly, Ruhullah, in a recent interview, stated that Mehmood had told him that he wouldn’t contest, but then, hours before his name was announced, he (Mehmood) had left his (Ruhullah’s) house.
Another initial rumour that sent the political pundits in a frenzy was that Aga Syed Ruhullah’s main aim was to ensure that the PDP candidate, who happens to be his cousin, doesn’t win, while his second objective was the defeat his own party. The rumour mill alleged that because of family dynamics and Muntazir’s young age, Ruhullah didn’t want him to win. It was further rumoured that the deal between Ruhullah and Mehbooba didn’t materialise because the former asked the PDP President not to put up Muntazir as the party’s candidate.
A third rumour alleged that Muntazir Mohuidin, an independent who left J&K Apni Party ahead of polls, was Ruhullah’s proxy. The rumour alleged that he was chosen by Ruhullah because he is a Sunni with support on the ground. With Mustafayi Shia vote of Ruhullah, the rumour stated, Mohiuddin had a good chance on the seat. However, as the campaign picked up, a new rumour surrounded Mohiuddin. He was alleged to have been put in the fray to cut Sunni votes of the National Conference, so that the election is decided by the Shia votes over which Ruhullah held sway.
Imran Ansari, J&K Peoples Conference’s (JKPC) General Secretary, was also engulfed with rumours. Ansari, a Shia cleric with a sizeable support base in the Budgam assembly segment, was alleged to have supported his former party, the PDP, which he left on a sour note after the fall of its alliance government with the BJP in June of 2018.
A video of JKPC’s Senior Vice President Abdul Gani Vakeel has also dawned the political skies of the Valley, where he has added legitimacy to these rumours about his own party colleague.
“In Budgam, it isn’t the victory of PDP alone. Aga Syed Ruhullah and Imran Ansari both lent their individual votes for the PDP candidate so that NC is dislodged,” Vakil said.
Interestingly, Ruhullah never congratulated the PDP’s winning candidate officially. During campaigning, he had travelled to Germany, where he stayed even on the day of the results. On the other hand, Ansari officially congratulated Aga Muntazir Mehdi.
JKPC had more trouble in this election compared to other parties. It’s Peoples Alliance for Change (PAC), formed with Justice and Development Front—a Jamaat-e-Islami offshoot—and former lawmaker from Khansahib Hakeem Yasin, fell apart just ahead of the Budgam elections.
The JDF withdrew from the alliance, leading to all three constituents not being able to put up any candidate for the seat. However, the absence of any candidate from the three groups gave fire to rumours which alleged that all three had supported the PDP candidate, courtesy of New Delhi.
While this rumour continued to rule the roost, the NC added more fuel to it by alleging that all these forces were brought on one platform to defeat the party. The NC, which faces anti-incumbency, was mired in rumours of having a tacit alliance with the BJP in the Nagrota by-poll. The rumoured alliance was in the air in Budgam. NC had put up a hitherto lesser-known Shamim Begum on the seat at the eleventh hour against the daughter of its former member Devender Singh Rana, who died after wresting the seat for the BJP.
The rumour mill alleged that NC deliberately offered the seat to Congress initially, even though it had contested the 2024 assembly polls against Rana itself. It was alleged that when Congress decided to leave the seat for the NC to call out the bluff, the latter was forced to contest, but ended up putting a weak contender, who stood third in the final tally.
With rumours remaining unverified, will Budgam witness the promised development, or will it succumb to the rumoured claims of development by the ruling government and the opposition lawmaker? Rumours can’t answer that, but time will.DD
Special Correspondent, Kashmir.
