High-Octane Fight In Langate Assembly Constituency
Langate assembly constituency emerged as one of the hotspots in Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections with the entry of Engineer Rashid’s brother, Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh in the electoral field. Rashid is facing fierce competition from Syed Ghulam Nabi Bukhari of PDP, Irshad Hussain Ganaie of Congress and Irfan Sultan Panditpuri of People’s Conference.
The recent yet significant shift in constituency’s history has been marked by the influence of Engineer Rashid. Rashid resigned from his government serve and contested as an independent and secured victory. He retained his position in 2014 elections by defeating PDP’s Ghulam Nabi Ganai by a margin of 2,505 votes.
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However, this time, Rashid’s younger brother is all set to make his political debut from the Langate assembly segment. Sheikh, a government teacher, resigned from his job in June, soon after his brother defeated National Conference (NC) vice president and former chief Minister Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference (PC) chairman Sajjad Lone in the Lok Sabha elections. Aside from them Jammu and Kashmir Workers Party President Mir Junaid, Apni Party’s Munawar Khawja and banned Jamaat-e-Islami backed independent candidate Dr Kalim Ullah, and independents are also vying for the seat.
People’s Conference leader Irfan Panditpori is incumbent District Development Council (DDC) Chairman. He is the son of former MLA Mohammad Sultan Panditpuri. During the campaigns Panditpuri talks about the anger and resentment of being left after the Lok Sabha polls. “People have been emotionally blackmailed. And they have now understood,” Hinudstan Times, quotes as he is saying.
He raises the issue of road connectivity, water scarcity and the need for sports stadiums in Langate. Continuing further, Panditpuri said: “Our manifesto is for the dignity and development of youth. We want to empower youth. We want to turn Bungus( tourism place) into a source of employment. For the past 10 years there has been a web of bureaucracy in which a common man can’t work. My developmental works stood no chance in front of emotional politics,” Hindustan Times reports.
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Similarly, NC-Congress alliance candidate Ganaie also stresses upon the development of Langate constituency.
Langate, traditionally a stronghold of the NC, retained it for four consecutive terms: 1977, 1983, 1987, and 1996. In the 1999 by-election, PDP candidate M S Panditpuri, who earlier belonged to NC, won it while NC’s Sharif-ud-din Shariq bagged the seat in 2002.
