Jammu, Aug 31 : Inderwal Assembly constituency, the biggest constituency of Kishtwar district in terms of area, is one of the most difficult seats of Chenab valley where the fight will be quadrilateral and the pendulum can swing to any side depending upon the campaigning and issues raised.
The constituency spreads from Marwah-Warwan in the north to Bonjwah in the south and touches different areas like Chatroo, Mughal Maidan and others.
After the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, this constituency also got a new shape. Marwah and Warwan were earlier part of Kishtwar constituency whereas Drabshala and adjoining areas were part of Inderwal constituency. Now, Marwah-Warwan are part of Inderwal whereas Drabshala and adjoining areas are part of Kishtwar constituency.
The total number of votes, as per the data available with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Jammu and Kashmir, in this constituency is 64101 which include 33189 male, 30911 female and one third gender voter. These electorates are eligible to vote during upcoming Assembly elections on this seat which will go for polls on September 18 in the first phase of Assembly elections.
At present nine candidates are contesting on this seat which include Muhammad Zafarullah of Indian National Congress (INC), Taraq Hussain Keen of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), three-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ghulam Muhammad Saroori who is contesting as an independent candidate, National Conference (NC) rebel Pyare Lal Sharma, who is also contesting as an independent candidate, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Sheikh Nasir Hussain, J&K Apni Party candidate Ashiq Hussain, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Salman Nisar, Independent candidates Salman Rabbani and Imtiyaz Bashir.
On records there is alliance between INC and NC on this seat and Muhammad Zafarullah of INC is their joint candidate but NC rebel Pyare Lal Sharma didn’t agree to that and filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate. Before the announcement of Assembly elections NC president Farooq Abdullah recently attended a marriage ceremony of Sharma’s son.
After the final day of withdrawal of nomination papers, a total of nine candidates are in the fray but the contest will be between INC, BJP and two independents including Saroori and Sharma. All of them are considered strong and can fetch votes from all corners of the constituency.
INC candidate Muhammad Zafarullah is from Marwah area and currently represents the area as District Development Councilor (DDC) and has a strong base in Marwah and Waran areas. His major stakes are in his native area but being a candidate of INC, he has a good chance to fetch party votes from other areas of the constituency as well. During parliamentary elections, INC candidate Choudhary Lal Singh was able to fetch the highest number of votes from this segment when he got 16832 votes.
BJP candidate Taraq Hussain Keen in 2014 lost the elections on this seat to the then INC candidate G M Saroori but during the recently held parliamentary elections BJP candidate Dr. Jitendra Singh performed well on this segment and got 11671 votes. He remained at the second position.
Saroori, who left the INC in 2022 to join Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), is the three-time MLA from this constituency. He never lost the elections from Inderwal since 2002 but after joining DPAP he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Uhampur parliamentary constituency. From his native segment he remained at the third position with 10373 votes and INC and BJP remained the two top vote getters.
Another independent candidate Pyare Lal Sharma is known all over and through his social work he enjoys a good reputation among people. Banking on his work done in the past and a person helping every needy person, Sharma, whose parent party is NC, is another strong candidate and can swallow a good number of votes.
Other candidates either don’t have much following or are new to politics and they will require time to emerge as strong force.
