Uncle versus nephew in Budhal showdown

Rajouri, Sep 19: A straight contest between a political heavyweight from the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and his nephew from the National Conference (NC) is creating an aggressive political atmosphere in the Budhal assembly constituency of Rajouri district in the Pir Panjal region.

The people are expecting a tight contest from this seat and see it as the most interesting one which will keep every single voter on their toes till the declaration of results.

Budhal assembly constituency was chalked out in the recent delimitation exercise of J&K with its areas of Kotranka and Budhal having been taken from earlier Darhal assembly constituency, while the Khawas tehsil area has been merged from Kalakote constituency.

With 95,072 electors including 50,295 males, 44,761 females, and a transgender voter, the authorities are going to establish 146 polling stations in the constituency of which 132 polling stations are critical.

The most important aspect of this assembly constituency is the contest between the BJP candidate with his nephew from NC.

Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, a former minister, is contesting on the mandate of the BJP while NC has fielded Javed Iqbal Choudhary under the NC-Congress alliance.

Zulfkar is the son of late Chowdhary Muhammad Hussain who remained MLA from the Darhal assembly constituency multiple times besides serving as a minister in the J&K government.

Zulfkar contested the 2002 assembly polls from the Darhal constituency as an independent candidate and lost while he joined PDP and contested the 2008 assembly polls on PDP’s mandate registering a win. He again emerged victorious in 2014 polls on PDP’s mandate.

Zulfkar was inducted as a cabinet minister in the J&K government of the BJP-PDP coalition and headed the Ministry of CA&PD (now FCS&CA), Ministry of Information, Education Ministry as well as Tribal Ministry.

He joined the Apni Party in 2020 and was the party’s vice president before joining the BJP in August 2024.

His opponent Javed Iqbal Choudhary, son of Zulfkar’s real elder sister, won Block Development Council (BDC) elections from Kotranka block and remained BDC Chairman while his wife Shazia Kouser is a District Development Council (DDC) member of Budhal Old-A (Kotranka) DDC constituency.

Javed, who along with his wife, were independent political leaders, joined NC in August 2024 and secured the party’s mandate from the constituency.

Guftar Ahmed Choudhary, the PDP candidate from this constituency, is a young political face who is also considered a tribal activist and is conducting an aggressive political campaign in the area.

People from the Rajouri district are keenly watching this close contest between members of the same family who are also considering this contest as the most interesting one compared to the other four constituencies in the district.

There are only four candidates in the fray from this assembly constituency and the fourth candidate is Abdul Rashid from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Budhal assembly constituency is broadly divided into three parts that include areas of Kotranka Peeri, Budhal, and Khawas tehsil.

Most of the areas of this constituency are remote with villages like Kote Charwal considered the most remote villages of Rajouri district.

The constituency has a mixed population with people from the Hindu community, people from the Muslim Pahari tribe as well as Gujjar and Bakerwals among Muslims.

Almost 100 percent population in this constituency is tribal.

The area is considered to be rich in terms of tourism potential with beautiful locations like Nanga Thub, Eco Tourism Park Kandi, Kesari Hill, Phalni Dam, and Budhal falling in this constituency while it also houses natural lakes like Samatsar in the upper reaches.

Amid this political wrestling, people from these areas are expecting proper political leadership after polls with high hopes of redressal of their grievances.

“We are facing innumerable issues in this area. Budhal, Kotranka, and Khawas are among the remotest areas of this district and people have a lot of problems,” Muhammad Bashar said.

He said that the poor condition of the education sector and health sector with the worst condition of schools and hospitals is earning a bad name for the entire area while people still do not have proper access to water supply as well as electricity.

He said that efforts to improve the health and education sector were needed in the area.

“Tourism potential in this area is immense and the area can house national as well as international level tourists but this needs a proper approach and we expect our next MLA to do so,” Muhammad Zaheer said.

He said that people in the area had a lot of problems that should be addressed on priority and having a vision for livelihood generation was also important.