Jammu and Kashmir polls: BJP bets on woman power to take on Omar Abdullah

Srinagar: Deep inside the winding lanes of a congested neighborhood in Srinagar, a bespectacled woman dressed in a loose, white shalwar kameez seeks votes for the Bhartiya Janata Party. A few years ago, such a scene would have been unimaginable. But time has changed and so has the political demography of Kashmir. Darkhshan Andrabi, a poet by choice, is the BJP’s candidate who will take on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Sonawar constituency. Her key target: the women of Sonawar. [caption id=“attachment_1813601” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. PTI[/caption] Andrabi was chairperson of Social Democratic Party (SDP) which she merged with the BJP. Apart from the developmental agenda, she says it is the BJP’s “commitment to women empowerment” which has attracted her to join the party, perhaps unaware that BJP has given tickets to only two women candidates in Kashmir. “Women must come forward in Kashmir to join politics. If we don’t, how can we expect political parties to give us 33 percent reservation? I tell our women party workers to make sure that every woman in their constituencies vote on the day of elections,” Andrabi says. Andrabi, who holds a doctorate in Urdu, prefers door-to-door campaign for convincing people into voting for BJP. Much like the rest of Srinagar city, Sonawar was also devastated in September flood. The scars left behind by furious water of Jehlum are still visible on the walls of houses. “I am privileged for having been chosen by the party to fight against Omar Abdullah. I wish there were at least two women fighting against such men in every constituency,” Andrabi says. She is one of the few voices of women power that will be put to a test when Jammu and Kashmir goes to polls from 25 November. While there was a slight improvement from the year 2009 in the number of women candidates winning the recent Lok Sabha elections, from 59 to 61, the number of women who were given tickets by political parties to contest assembly polls in J&K is almost nil. The total number of voters in the state is 69,33,118 out of which 36,57,877 are males and 32,75,241 females. Ironically, women candidates constitute a mere three percent of the candidates who are contesting the 2014 assembly elections. Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) chief spokesperson, Naeem Akhtar, says there are few women politicians who want to join politics. “I am sure if our party gets good candidates, we will not hesitate in giving tickets to them. Women in Kashmir stay away from politics. Had it not been the case, we would have fielded more female candidates. It is a sad state of affairs,” Akhtar says. His claim, however, betrays the reality on ground. For example, National Conference is the only party in the state which has allotted tickets to six women candidates out of 84 announced by the party for the upcoming elections while PDP headed by Mehbooba Mufti has given ticket to only one women candidate. Congress party has fielded three women in this assembly elections including Khem Lata Wakhloo, a Kashmiri Pandit while BJP which is eyeing a majority in the 87-member assembly has two women candidates. “There is a need for women in our state to come forward. It doesn’t matter which party they join. At least, we should have 20 percent female representatives in the state assembly,” BJP candidate from Amira Kadel constituency, Hina Bhat, 35, who is taking on the sitting MLA and NC’s president for Kashmir province Nasir Aslam Wani. Bhat is the daughter of a former NC leader, Mohammad Shafi Bhat. BJP is banking on migrant votes in her constituency to turn the tables on Wani. Bhat’s constituency witnesses low voter turnout and if Kashmiri Pandits decide to vote for BJP, it could very well pave way for Hina to enter the state assembly. “If the BJP comes to power, we will make sure that women are provided 33 percent reservation in the assembly,” she says. National Conference leader and social welfare minister, Sakina Ittoo is one of them. Ittoo, who is in her early forties, has survived over a dozen assassination attempts in her political career, but she has persisted in politics. In one such attempt on 10 July 2006, five people were killed, including a former NC legislator, Ghulam Nabi Dar, and 41 others were injured, which including Ittoo too. She entered politics in 1994 after militants killed her father, Wali Mohammad Ittoo, a former speaker and a senior NC leader. Ittoo quit her medical studies mid-way and managed a maiden victory from her father’s constituency, Noorabad, in the 1996 assembly polls. “It has been a difficult journey,” Itoo says, being a women politician in Kashmir is as difficult as in any other state of India but out party National Conference has been a torchbearer when it comes to empowerment of women." In Kashmir’s troubled past, few women politicians have made their mark on the state’s political map in the last two decades of insurgency. With Hina and Darakshan coming on the frontline, the political battles have gotten more interesting than before.