NC, Cong bigwigs vie for Surankote pie
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Surankote (Poonch), November 7
One of the worst militancy hit areas, Surankote, which goes to poll in the first phase on November 17, would finally hope its leaders to deliver and to develop a progress path for its residents.

Poll Date: Nov 17

Voters: 84,969

Candidates: 11

Main issue: Unemployment

This constituency has 84,969 voters — 43,442 male and 41,527 female — who would decide the fate of 11 candidates in fray.

The EC has set up as many as 110 polling stations in the constituency, as compared to 107 established in 2002 poll.

The main contest seems to be between two-time NC MLA Syed Mushtaq Bukhari and senior Congress leader Choudhary Muhammad Aslam, who represented this constituency from 1967 to 1996.

Other candidates are Mumtaz Hussain Bukhari (PDP), who is cousin of Mushtaq Bukhari, Abdul Aziz Bhat (BJP), Jameel Hussain Shah (Panthers Party), Javed Ahmed (All India Forward Block), Ishfaq Ahmed (J&K Democratic Party-National), Kalu Khan (Kissan Mazdoor Party) and Muhammad Sharief Shaad (BSP). Syed Mushtaq Bukhari, who comes from a family of Muslim clerics, has good base in the Panj Saran area and is quite popular among the Pahari community who roughly forms 55 per cent of the voters.

Aslam, who is a prominent Gujjar leader and a former Rajya Sabha MP, comes from the Lassana area and is popular in the Hari, Madote and his native place. Aslam is likely to get good share of his community voters who form about 45 per cent of voters.

In 1996, Bukhari defeated Aslam by securing 18 per cent more votes but in 2002, the victory margin went down to just 6 per cent. So far as the voters are concerned, people of different areas have different priorities.

The common priorities are employment for educated youth, setting up of a degree college, better healthcare, increased connectivity in villages under Prime Minister Grameen Sadak Yojana, proper implementation of NREGA, speedy completion of Mughal road project and restart of work on the Parnai power project, which was stopped in early 1990s due to lack of funds and militancy. In Bufliaz area, voters have raised voice for a degree college at Surankote.