Jamaat-backed Abdul Rehman Shalla vows devp, peace for Baramulla

As a teacher and an orator, Abdul Rehman Shalla would harp on the importance of educating the younger generation. Now retired, he is the poll fray as Jamaat-e-Islami-backed candidate from the Baramulla assembly seat and his discourse has expanded to include “vikas (development)”, “aman (peace)” and Kashmir’s vibrant horticulture industry.

Shalla began his campaign 10 days ago and his slogans are drawing crowds, especially the old cadre of the banned Jamaat, who now stand with him wherever he goes for a corner meeting or an election rally.

Shalla, who lives in old town, Baramulla, once a militancy-prone zone, now goes door-to-door in the localities distributing his manifesto and picture of his election symbol, “stamp”. A majority of locals welcome him and offer candies to his entourage. “You have to come out and press the button on my stamp,” says the soft-spoken Shalla, who is known for his contribution in education and philanthropy especially in the old town where thousands of people live in congested localities.

He is the only prominent candidate from Baramulla who lives in the old city, where a majority of voters feel they have been ignored by the past governments. “My aim is to get development for my constituency without any prejudice. I will work for everyone,” he told a small gathering who had converged to listen to him at the Drangbal locality of town.

Shalla has a decades-old association with Jamaat and was a known “moderate” face of the organisation, often acting as a bridge between agitators and the administration when militancy and stone pelting was at its peak in the town.

“Under normal circumstances, many candidates could have been fighting for the mandate of Jamaat, but since the situation is different, he came forward to contest. It’s not easy to become a candidate of a party which has been against elections since militancy. He is receiving both brickbats as well as praise but many consider this as a sacrifice,” said Ghulam Qadir, who is one of his campaign managers.

Baramulla has been a stronghold of Jamaat for decades, winning several municipal and panchayat seats back in the day. Assembly success, however, has eluded them.

A good number of youth and educated people are also sympathisers of the organisation running different schools and affiliated with philanthropic works.

Shalla in his meetings talks about horticulture and how apples being brought in from foreign countries without imposing taxes are a threat to the local produce. “We have to spray different fungicides and pesticides without any safeguard which is ruining the industry on which sustenance of thousands of families depend in north Kashmir,”he said, before talking about the filtration plant of Baramulla, which was constructed five decades ago and outlived its life.

“Don’t we have the right to get clean potable water? Our filtration plant is also useless,” he said.

Shalla, who is known for deep knowledge of issues, could emerge as a dark horse in the constituency where several prominent leaders are in the fray.

In the 1987 polls, senior Jamaat leader Ghulam Mohammad Safi who was then the candidate of Muslim United Front lost the seat by a slender margin of 1,500 votes to NC’s Sheikh Mohammad Maqbool. Since 2002, the seat has stayed with the Peoples Democratic Party.

Shalla is taking on NC candidate and former legislator Javeed Baig and his uncle former deputy CM Muzzaffar Hussain Baig, who is contesting as an independent candidate besides the PDP spokesperson Mohammad Rafique Rather.