Peerzada Mohammad Syed In Anantnag Seat: To Reclaim Position In Party And Politics (image: facebook.com/incpeerzadasyed/)

Senior leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Peerzada Mohammad Syed were one among the several leaders who quit the Congress in 2022 and asserted support to former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who at that time was planning to forge his own party.

“I was feeling suffocated in the party. With a heavy heart, I am snapping my ties with the party after nearly 50 years,” Peerzada then told reporters. He said his decision to leave the party was based on the feedback he received from the constituents in the Kokernag assembly segment in J&K.

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However, few months after desertion, Peerzada along with 16 other leaders rejoined Congress.  There is need to strengthen and unite all secular forces in J&K, where terrorism has amplified than decreased in the last eight years, he said.

Peerzada has served as minister in various governments in Jammu and Kashmir and controversies are not new for him. While serving as education minister in Omar Abdullah government, he was accused of fixing his foster son’s qualification in the Class 10th examination through unfair means and impersonation.

Controversies are not new for Peerzada Mohammad Syed. In 2008, he had to resign as the education minister after MLA Shoaib Lone alleged him of demanding a bribe of Rs 40,000 for clearing the file of the MLA’s sister. In 2005, the State Accountability Commission (SAC) accused Syed, then minister for rural development in the Mufti Sayeed government – for his “knee-deep” involvement in the multi-crore rural electrification scam worth crores of rupees.

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Peerzada has been active in J&K political arena since 1971 and has represented Kokernag assembly segment thrice – 1987, 2002, and 2008. He held a ministrial portfolio for the first time in 1988.

In the upcoming Assembly elections, he will field from Anantnag assembly segment. Congress and the National Conference have reached  seating-sharing agreement for the polls.

J&K Assembly elections will be held on three phases –  September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.