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| Politics to ride on bureaucracy? | | |
ZAFAR CHOUDHARY
Jammu, March 12: With at least two former top bureaucrats reaching Upper House of the state legislature, the political parties are making choices for the retired officials to take charge of politics.
Two former Chief Secretaries and another retired senior officer recently made it to the state Legislative Council on tickets of three main parties. Vijay Bakaya and BR Kundal, both former Chief Secretaries won the Upper House elections on National Conference and Congress tickets, respectively. Syed Asghar Hussain, also a retired bureaucrat won the seat on PDP ticket.
As the fashion of recruiting former officials catches up with the political parties, the National Conference is reported to have cleared name of former top Police officer AR Wattali for by-elections to Sonawar assembly constituency while the Congress is reportedly considering, among others, the name of a serving top bureaucrat for Bhaderwah seat.
Sources said that the National Conference has given nod to the names of Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal for Hazratbal constituency and AR Wattali for Sonawar constituency. Dr Farooq Abdullah had won both the constituencies in November-December 2008 assembly elections and later resigned from both upon his election to the Rajya Sabha.
NC leaders Mohammad Sayeed Akhoon and Mohammad Yaseen Shah were the aspirants for Hazratbal and Sonawar constituencies, respectively, which they had won consecutively in 1996 and 2002 elections. However, during the 2008 elections both had offered safe seats to Dr Abdullah and were expecting party tickets when the seats fell vacant.
While Dr Mustafa Kamal, brother of Dr Abdullah and uncle of the Chief Minister Omar, had contested the recent assembly elections from Gulmarg constituency in Baramulla district but he lost to the Democratic Party leader and former Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir. Wattali, who has been reportedly picked by the National Conference to contest from Sonawar, is a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police.
Meanwhile, sources said that a lobby in the Congress is considering name of serving IAS officer for Bhaderwah constituency which is going to by-elections on May 7. The officer is presently Commissioner-Secretary to the government and is considered very close to the senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Interestingly, Azad’s brother Ghulam Mustafa Azad is also in the fray for ticket to contest the Bhaderwah assembly seat.
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