Amir Tantray
Jammu, Sep 21 : Since the Pahari people have been given the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status by the BJP led-NDA government at the centre, which paved way for them to contest on ST reserved seats, Surankote Assembly constituency is brewing up for a major fight between Congress party’s Gujjar candidate and BJP’s Pahari candidate.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and co-incharge of Odisha Shahnawaz Choudhary is the joint candidate of Congress and National Conference (NC) whereas one of the biggest advocates of ST status for Pahari people Mushtaq Bukhari is the BJP’s candidate.
As per the news agency, there are 113342 total electorates including 58405 male and 54937 female electorates eligible to vote during the second phase of Assembly elections on September 25 on Surankote seat.
A total of eight candidates are in the fray which include Congress party’s Shahnawaz Choudhary, who is also a District Development Councillor (DDC) from Surankote, BJP’s Mushtaq Bukhari, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Javaid Iqbal, former MLA from Surankote Choudhary Muhammad Akram, who is contesting as independent and four others.
The contest is mainly between Congress-NC alliance candidate and BJP whereas PDP and Choudhary Akram also have strong base in the area. Around 55 to 60 percent population belongs to Pahari community whereas 35 percent population is of Gujjar community. A marginal Kashmiri speaking population is also part of this constituency.
Even though the BJP government has given ST status to Pahari people, diverting the Muslim Pahari vote towards BJP will be the biggest task for Bukhari and the acceptance of BJP in Surankote is still hard, which may go against him.
On the other hand, Shahnawaz Choudhary has emerged as a strong candidate after he defeated Choudhary Akram during DDC elections despite contesting as an independent candidate and when Akram was the candidate of Congress party. The Congress-NC alliance candidate is also getting help from Member Parliament (MP) Mian Altaf Ahmed, who belongs to NC and is a spiritual leader of Gujjar community, and public response to Shahnawaz Choudhary is also increasing on a daily basis.
Choudhary Muhammad Akram, a former Congressman, had left his parent party in 2022 and joined Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) but his stay with Azad was short before he disassociated himself from the party. Before elections he joined NC but as Shahnawaz Choudhary got the alliance mandate, Akram decided to contest as an independent candidate.
On the other hand, PDP’s Javaid Iqbal is also trying hard to get votes and has been moving everywhere but PDP doesn’t have a strong vote base in the area and it will be difficult for him to get over the line.
