J&K Legislative Assembly elections
5 kith and kins of top politicians get tickets
KNO Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 29 (KNO): The National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party- the two main regional political parties- have fielded at least five candidates who are kith and kin of senior politicians.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), so far Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has given mandate to Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Chief Minister and party president whereas National Conference has given mandate to four such sons of former ministers who will contest to get elected to the Legislative Assembly.
From NC, Mehar Ali, son of Member Parliament (MP) from Anantnag-Rajouri seat Mian Altaf, has got the mandate to contest from their traditional seat Kangan seat of Ganderbal district, which is now reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST), Salman Sagar, son of former minister Ali Muhammad Sagar will be contesting from Hazratbal seat of Srinagar district, Hilal Akber Lone, son of former minster and Speaker Muhammad Akber Lone, to contest from Sonawari seat of Bandipora district and Sajad Shafi Uri, son of former MLA Muhammad Shafi Uri will contest from Uri seat of Baramulla district.
These are the first time candidates belonging to the already established political families of Jammu and Kashmir and will be banking on the traditional vote bank of their parties as well as their parents who have been elected to the J&K Legislative Assembly many times in the past.
Even though there has been a lot of criticism from different groups on promotion of dynastic politics including from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) but such kind of a politics suits both NC and PDP.
All the four new comers of NC are from political families who have been loyal to the party and Abdullahs and the party and its leadership has trusted them at every level.
For PDP Mufti family is a reason to keep the party together even at the toughest times when many leaders deserted it after august 5, 2019 episode of abrogation of Article 370—(KNO)
