MP Engineer Rashid’s kin resigns from govt job to contest J&K Assembly polls

Srinagar, Aug 22 (IANS) As part of incarcerated Lok Sabha member Engineer Rashid’s plan for his party’s participation in the Assembly elections, his younger brother, Sheikh Khursheed Ahmad, on Thursday, resigned from his government service to contest the polls.Awami Itihad Party (AIP) sources said Khursheed will fight the Assembly elections from the Langate seat in the Kupwara district.Engineer Rashid has represented the Langate Assembly constituency twice in 2008 and 2014 by winning elections from there.Rashid surprised everybody by filing nomination papers from Tihar Jail in Delhi for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat. He defeated former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC), vice president, Omar Abdullah by a margin of over two lakh votes. Sajad Gani Lone of the Peoples Conference (PC) finished third in the Baramulla Lok Sabha elections.What came as a rude shock to the otherwise well-entrenched NC in Baramulla Lok Sabha is that Engineer Rashid polled a majority of votes in 15 out of the total 18 Assembly segments which form the voting segments of Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency.Rashid was granted custody parole by the court to be able to take oath as a Lok Sabha member.He has filed an application for regular bail in the Patiala House Court in Delhi. The court has issued notice to NIA to file objections in the matter. The case is listed for August 28.Engineer Rashid was originally a worker of the PC formed by Sajad Lone’s father, the late Abdul Gani Lone. Engineer Rashid later grew personal political ambitions and parted ways with PC after which he stood for elections from the Langate Assembly constituency after forming his own party, the AIP.Voters’ sympathy for Engineer Rashid stemmed basically from the fact that he had remained in jail without being charge-sheeted in a court of law.His elderly parents also marched during the Lok Sabha campaign pitching basically for the release of their son.Rashid’s son spearheaded the poll campaign along with his young friends who ran an emotionally surcharged poll campaign without making any electoral promises or showing lofty dreams to the voters.They asked for votes to garner moral and political support for the release of Engineer Rashid from prison.–IANSsq/dpb