Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 25: As the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) is fielding its former members as Independent candidates from at least a dozen seats in the upcoming Assembly polls, mostly in South Kashmir, it will have a major impact on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
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The former Jamaat members have formed the Justice and Development Front (JDF) to contest polls from around a dozen constituencies from Kashmir, mostly in South. They will issue the list of candidates for the first phase after a meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow.
Jamaat was waiting for the lifting of the ban from the organization that was imposed on it in February 2019. The leadership of the party held several rounds of talks for lifting of the ban during this year. However, on Friday, ban on the Jamaat was upheld.
The JeI members could not register the new party -JDF- due to time constraints, so they are contesting the polls as Independent candidates.
A source in the party said that they are likely to contest from Pulwama, Rajpora and Tral in Pulwama district, Bijbehara and Anantnag in Anantnag district, Kulgam and Devsar in Kulgam district and Zainapora in Shopian.
These constituencies are considered to be strongholds of PDP and it will pose a tough challenge to the party that has been weakened post 2019 after majority of the leaders quit the party.
Shameem Ahmad Thokar who is likely to contest polls from Pulwama constituency told Excelsior that they are contesting from around a dozen constituencies and in the first phase a list of candidates will be issued for the Phase-I elections.
“Around 4-5 candidates will contest from South Kashmir and we will announce the list by tomorrow evening,” he said. Thokar is filing nomination papers from Pulwama Assembly constituency on Tuesday.
In North Kashmir, the source said that Jamaat may support the candidates of Awami Itihad Party led by its jailed leader Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid. It may be mentioned here that Jamaat cadres voted for Engineer Rashid in the Parliament elections earlier this year in North Kashmir. Rashid defeated National Conference candidate and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by a huge margin.
Jamaat stayed away from the election since 1987 and they last participated in the polls under the banner of the Muslim United Front. However, the Jamaat cadres supported the PDP candidates during the last few elections.
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