In north Kashmir’s Handwara constituency, almost everyone seems to be a party to the impending elections. Every second private vehicle here has a party flag on top of it, and almost everyone – from the fruit hawker to a government official, from an uncertain student to a daily wage labourer – supports one party or the other.
Two days before it goes to the polls, Handwara, on Sunday, was a scene of an electoral festival and at the centre of it was People’s Conference leader Sajjad Ghani Lone, who addressed his last election rally here. An emotional Mr. Lone stood atop a pick-up truck that slowly made its way through the packed streets to the ground where the leader was to address the people. “I want you to promise me that no candidate in this election would win by more votes than I do,” Mr. Lone said. “I can’t wait to sit on the chair that my martyred father used to sit on.”
Handwara is Mr. Lone’s home constituency from where his father, late Abdul Ghani Lone, started his popular party, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (PC), and earned loyal supporters with his generous approach towards people.
Most of the people who gathered to hear Mr. Lone on Sunday were PC loyalists, for whom Sajjad Lone is late Lone Sahib’s “good son”, who will ease their lives out of poverty and powerlessness.
“I don’t know Sajjad, he has not lived here,” said Abdul Salam Chopan, a supporter of PC. “I know his father, Lone Sahib. I have always supported the PC and I voted for Lone Sahib. I hope Sajjad respects that vote and does not fleece us like others in the past.”
Though there are 14 candidates in the fray in Handwara, the real contest is between sitting MLA from National Conference Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan, who won the 2008 elections by over 11,000 votes, and Mr. Lone.
At a time when every party in J&K is trying to garner votes by warning people against the advent of the BJP and the RSS, Mr. Lone is the only one who has chosen to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“He has a direct link with the Centre and he will use that to benefit us here,” said Showkat Ahmad Ganai, a 34-year-old labourer.
