'With all outlets of public expression virtually choked for the last five years, suppressed anger and frustration is looking for an opening via the ballot box.' 'There is no escape from the inevitability of the 'Engineer Rashid' factor surfacing in a big enough way to upset everyone's applecart,' alerts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Every trick in the trade is being tried unabashedly.
In simple arithmetical terms every possible 'arrangement' is being made to deny a majority to its rivals. A split verdict would hand a vital advantage to the BJP which is adept at extracting the best out of such a situation, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Over 2.5 million voters will decide the fate of 239 candidates in the fray for 26 Jammu and Kashmir assembly seats in the second phase of the election to be held in the Union territory on Wednesday.
Pant now has three Test centuries on English soil.
'If the country felt very strongly about the BJP, then why did the country not put money where the mouth is?'
Those familiar with intricate Kashmir politics do not rule out further delay in the assembly elections. Primarily, because the BJP having 'invested' so much for so long in Kashmir would try its best to wait a little longer if only to secure the 'gains' it believes to have achieved after its deafening action on August 5, 2019, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'The whole Kashmiri population is seemed to be a suspect community. This status is not good.'
'Everyone is unhappy with the lieutenant governor's administration, which is ignorant, high-handed, and inaccessible.'
None of its candidates won. Most of them lost badly.
'Afzal Guru became a victim of Pakistan's conspiracy. He was used as a means, just like all other innocent Kashmiris.'
Rashid was arrested on August 9 last year, since he was unable to give any convincing answers to the questions, the NIA said.
Voting for this crucial phase, covering 40 assembly segments across seven districts -- Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir -- is scheduled for October 1.
The previous highest voter turnout in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency was witnessed in 1984 at 58.90 percent.
'INDIA will easily cross 50 seats out of 90 in Jammu and Kashmir.'
Reigning champions Kolkata Knight Riders will hope that their strife-ridden batting unit will tighten its act against in-form table-toppers Gujarat Titans in the IPL match in Kolkata on Monday.
Mehbooba Mufti said she will not contest the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, pointing out that she would not be able to fulfil her party's agenda in the union territory set up even if she were to become the chief minister.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will commence day-to-day hearing from August 2 on a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
After they met in New Delhi on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, INDIA bloc leaders decided to sit in the Opposition for now...
In a letter to the Jammu and Kashmir DGP, Abdul Rashid Shora said, "I am under a constant threat of life from my daughter Shehla Rashid Shora who is supported by the elder daughter namely Asma Rashid and my wife namely Zubaida Shora as well as her security guard namely Sakib Ahmad. This threat perception started in 2017 when Shehla jumped all of a sudden into Kashmir politics."
BIf you know this BJP, it will now go forward to Jharkhand and Maharashtra as if June 2024 never happened, notes Shekhar Gupta.
What some of our politicians were up to on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
'We want to ensure that no government in J&K will be formed without our support.'
'The lack of opportunities here remains the biggest worry.' 'We have seen investment summits, but if you look around, much of it is only on paper and not on the ground.'
Will Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who gets his orders from New Delhi, call the shots or allow a democratically elected government to independently govern, questions Ramesh Menon.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday clinched a stunning hat-trick win in Haryana overcoming anti-incumbency and dashing Congress' hopes of a comeback while the National Conference-Congress combine pulled off a spectacular victory in maiden elections in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The UAE was set to create history as the first Arab country and the fourth globally to land a spacecraft on the moon had the Emirati-built moon explorer Rashid Rover made a successful landing on the lunar surface.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Independent MLA Engineer Rashid, who a hosted beef party at MLA hostel on Wednesday, was beaten up by BJP MLA Ravinder Raina in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Thursday.
Please promise, especially those millions who trust you with their hard-earned money, never to let your voting preferences determine your actions on the markets. The most appalling and scary phenomenon was fund houses and brokerages going out on election yatras and writing copious reports promising more than 300 for the BJP. That was your wish as voters. Your investors are paying for it now, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'I should not have lifted my hand, but whoever eats the meat of a cow, whom we Hindus consider our mother, these things will happen.'
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
An independent member of legislative assembly in the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly has submitted a resolution to the speaker seeking clemency for Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru.
Pakistan's new railway minister Sheikh Rashid has asked his officials to consider a proposal to take on lease rail engines from India for pulling heavy-load goods trains.
A novel protest by a sitting MLA against the dog menace was frustrated by the Jammu and Kashmir police in summer capital Srinagar on Wednesday.
Nine Chinese engineers were among 13 people killed on Wednesday when a bus carrying construction workers in northwest Pakistan's mountainous region was "attacked", according to officials and eyewitnesses.
Independent MLA from north Kashmir, Engineer Rashid, whose resolution for clemency to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru could not be taken up for discussion last year has again submitted the resolution for being included in the business of the budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
An independent legislator, Engineer Abdul Rashid on Wednesday said that he will press for the release of all political prisoners and return of the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru in the upcoming budget session of the state assembly.
Two persons of a right wing Hindu outfit were arrested on Monday for smearing Jammu and Kashmir MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid's face with paint, ink and mobil oil protesting against his hosting a beef party in Srinagar earlier this month.
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