CPI(M) Veteran MY Tarigami Secures Fifth Win From Kulgam

CPI(M) veteran Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, or MY Tarigami secured his fifth consecutive win from Kulgam Assembly constituency. In the polls, he defeated Independent candidate Sayar Ahmad Reshi by a margin of 7,838 votes.

The Kulgam seat is considered as CPI(M) bastion and Tarigami has been representing the seat since 1996. He is also the lone seat CPI(M) will be contesting in Jammu and Kashmir, part of the National Conference (NC)-Congress alliance. In the seat-sharing deal, realising the importance and political presence Tarigami holds in the region, alliance partners has strategically left the seat to him.

When the pre-poll alliance was forged, the senior CPI (M) leader welcomed the move and emphasised the necessity of secular parties to unite and fight the current regime’s actions, which have eroded the region’s constitutional rights.

It was in 1996 Assembly polls, more than six years after the militancy outbreak in Jammu and Kashmir, the constituency was won by Tarigami and subsequently retained the position in 2002, 2008, and 2014 elections.

Tarigami is also a prominent leader behind the formation of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a political alliance of seven major Kashmiri parties that aimed to seek the restoration of Article 370.

Kulgam was once been a cradle of religio-political outfit, the Jamaat-e-Islamia. All these years Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir stayed away from electoral process,  but in the current polls, the organisation has decieded to field some of its former members as independent candidates. Sayar Ahmad Reshi’s contest from Kulgam should be counted as one. Reshi worked as a Lecturer and an Assistant Director at Falah Alam Trust.