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LS polls: Woman contestant in Kashmir after two decades
Published on
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
8:44 pm
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Srinagar: After a gap of two decades,
a woman is set to contest parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir as an
independent candidate.
Nirupama Kaul alias Rabia Baji, who runs a
nongovernmental group in Kashmir, Thursday announced that she will
contest the election from Srinagar slated in the months of April and May.
Begam Abdullah, chief minister’s Omar Abdullah’s
grandmother, had successfully contested the parliamentary elections from
Srinagar in 1984.
Rabia, who was in the news after 65 Kashmir students were
expelled from a university in India’s Meerut, during a press conference at her
Raj Bagh office said: I will contest the election as an independent candidate.
Rabia, who runs the All India Centre for Urban and Rural
Development (AICURD, J&K), will be the first woman from the state to fight
the parliamentary elections after nearly two decades.
According to GNS, Rabia, said ‘she will not contest as a
leader’, but, ‘as a representative of a common Kashmir people whose voice are
unheard in the Indian Parliament’.
She is set to announce her manifesto within coming days
‘after proper consultation with various cross sections of society’. “I am not
contesting against anyone but am contesting for the voice of youth and
suppressed women who do not get their choice of representation and relief for
their suffering and needs,” she said.
Rabia said youth are the pillar and the backbone of
the society. “If the youth is strong, the society is strong, same for the
women, who are the foundation stone of a family. If women are economically,
socially and physically strong, then the society also becomes strong,” she
said.
The students expelled from the SVSU University were
sent to study there on Prime Minister’s scholarship scheme through Rabia’s
group.While commenting on the sedition charges leveled on Kashmir students, she
said their suspension order has not been revoked. “I had called a meeting of
the parents of suspended students. Some of them are concerned for the safety of
their wards and want a migration from the varsity and some want to rejoin their
studies at the university,” she said.
Rabia said those who are issuing statements in connection
with the ousting of these students should answer why they turned their heads
when asked to assist the students in 2010. “Now, they are issuing statements
regarding the issue as part of their election gimmick,” she said.
Rabia will be contesting against National Conference (NC)
patron and union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah – who is currently Member of
Parliament from Srinagar Constituency. Traditionally, Srinagar is NC’s
stronghold, and it had swept Assembly elections as well in 2008.
The others who are contesting parliament elections this
year are Tariq Hamid Qarra of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Aam Aadmi
Party’s Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a former PDP worker who had joined the opposition
after working as an RTI campaigner. (GNS)
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