J&K Election Result: MY Tarigami’s 5th win in a row – a defeat for Jamaat-backed politics in Kashmir’s Kulgam

Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami, Kashmir's lone communist leader, won the assembly election from the Kulgam seat in Jammu and Kashmir for the fifth consecutive time. Tarigami, representing the Communist Party of India (Marxist), defeated former member of banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Sayar Ahmad Reshi by about 7,800 votes, the Election Commission of India said.

Tarigami secured 33,634 votes. His nearest rival and independent candidate, Reshi bagged 25,796 votes. Reshi was contesting the polls for the first time.

Tarigami has consecutively won the seat since 1996.

"I salute the people of Kulgam. They fought for Kulgam, for Kashmir, for the rights of the people of Kashmir and defeated those who became collaborators of the government," Tarigami was quoted as saying to NDTV.

Tarigami was backed by the National Conference (NC), which did not field a candidate in Kulgam. The People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mohd Amin Dar, finished third.

The NC-Congress alliance is all set to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir after bagging 49 seats in the 90-member assembly.

Jamaat-e-Islami was at the forefront of militancy in the Kashmir valley in the 1990s. The organisation was banned in 2019 but it decided to contest Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections as it backed independent candidates.

Jamaat backed independents

The Jamaat decision to enter the poll fray came three decades after it announced a boycott of elections and became the face of separatism in the Kashmir Valley. Abdul Razak Mir of Jamaat-e-Islami had won the Kulgam seat in 1972. The hardline organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) backed 10 candidates, including Reshi.

In his campaign before the September 18 polls, Reshi asserted that his defeat would be the 'defeat of Islam'. Clearly, his appeal didn't find resonance.

Reshi, 42, worked as a lecturer in government colleges in Kulgam and Anantnag districts of Kashmir Valley. He has also been the assistant director of the Falah-e-Aam Trust, the organisation that manages schools in Jammu and Kashmir and is linked to the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

Jammu and Kashmir voted in three phases - September 18, 25 and October 1. The last assembly election held in the erstwhile state was in 2014. The PDP-BJP government formed then could not last the full six-year term as the BJP withdrew its support to former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party in 2018.