Kashmir election: Are separatist candidates change agents or Trojan horses?

Kulgam, Indian-administered Kashmir — Every day, Kaleemullah Lone leaves his home early in the morning to go door-to-door canvassing for votes in his constituency, Langate, 70km (43 miles) from Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

His campaign promises an end to pre-trial detentions and bureaucratic overreach, and to address the flailing healthcare infrastructure and rising unemployment in the Kashmir Valley.

But missing from his platform is any mention of the Kashmir dispute that has torn at the picturesque Himalayan region for decades and dominated the very identity of the political party that Lone belongs to, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). India and Pakistan both claim all of Jammu and Kashmir and each controls parts of it. They have fought multiple wars over the region.

Indian-administered Kashmir is now gearing up to vote in its first regional polls in 10 years, after New Delhi unilaterally scrapped the region’s special autonomy in 2019 and stripped away its statehood. And the entry of an unlikely participant in the election has stirred things up.

For decades, the Jamaat, an Islamist social-religious organisation that has rejected India’s rule, boycotted – and asked voters to boycott – elections, arguing that participating would give New Delhi legitimacy over Kashmir. It spawned armed movements that have fought for Kashmir’s separation from India. The Jamaat is banned in India under the country’s anti-terror law.

Now, at least 10 Jamaat-backed candidates are contesting in the elections, to be held in three phases – September 18, 25, and October 1 – leading to confusion, hope, anger and speculation bordering on conspiracy theories.

“We want to show Kashmiris what is real democracy by our work after the elections,” Lone told Al Jazeera. “By fighting for education and securing employment, we will highlight the damage done to the core of our society because we stayed away from representing them.”

A 37-year-long democratic exile

The Jamaat last contested elections in 1987, when it spearheaded the campaign for the state assembly under the Muslim United Front (MUF). But the elections, which most analysts believe were rigged by New Delhi to deny the MUF a victory, led to an uprising against India’s rule.

The Jamaat eventually became the fountainhead of the armed rebellion, led by a native rebel outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen, which was declared the party’s armed wing in 1990. (The Jamaat distanced itself from the hardliners in November 1998.)

Kashmiri analysts and political observers told Al Jazeera that the Jamaat’s decision to contest elections “completes a tragic circle in the region’s bloodied history” while its cadre remains divided over the call to vote.

“Jamaat is fighting a paradox: on one side, its leaders are being persecuted, and on another side, the party is fighting an election that legitimises Delhi’s rule,” said a senior Kashmiri political analyst, who requested anonymity due to fear of repercussions from the police. “They stand to partly undo 37 years of political struggle for a resolution of the Kashmir dispute.”

In August 2019, New Delhi bifurcated the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally governed territories, ended the region’s semi-autonomous status and imposed a crackdown under which dozens of opposition leaders – including mainstream politicians who swear by the Indian Constitution — were arrested. Since March 2019, when the Jamaat was most recently banned [it was banned two times before, in 1975 and 1990], more than 300 party leaders and activists have been arrested, their houses raided and properties seized.

To break the deadlock, the Jamaat appointed a five-member panel that has held multiple rounds of talks with New Delhi, at least three party leaders told Al Jazeera. Since the party remains banned, it is now backing its former members to contest independently in the upcoming elections.

The paradox

Lone was born a year after his father, Ghulam Qadir Lone, a member of Jamaat’s panel of interlocutors with New Delhi, also contested the 1987 state election unsuccessfully in northern Kashmir’s Langate constituency, representing the Jamaat. Raised in the shadow of guns and police raids, the younger Lone recalls feeling “pushed to the wall and getting tangled into separatism”.

One of the Jamaat candidates from the 1987 elections, Syed Salahuddin, eventually went on to become the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen and of the United Jihad Council, based out of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Another, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, went on to lead a faction of the All Partie Hurriyat Conference group, which campaigned for either the region’s merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan or the creation of an independent nation. Geelani was widely seen as a face of radical resistance.

The JeI fought electoral contests for two decades until 1987. Since then, it backed election boycotts. “Since the process was rigged against us, it was no time to encourage voting,” Lone said.

But the shrinking of Kashmir’s political space since the 2019 crackdown “has pushed us back on the path of fierce democracy”, Lone said.

After several rounds of talks between the Jamaat interlocutors and the Hindu majoritarian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, New Delhi told the Jamaat “to cast [their] vote in the Lok Sabha as a show of confidence”, a party insider told Al Jazeera.

The Lok Sabha or national elections were held between April and June 2024. They were widely seen as mostly free and fair, especially in Kashmir, where voter turnout had risen to levels unseen since the late 1980s, and a jailed, anti-establishment independent, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, stunned pundits by beating former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from behind bars.

Now, competing in the region’s legislative elections is the next step for the group towards “establishing that trust” in Indian democracy, the Jamaat insider said.

The Jamaat-backed candidates are fighting the elections on a shared manifesto with the same promises that Lone is offering to prospective voters.

Noor Ahmad Baba, a retired professor who headed the social sciences department at the University of Kashmir, said that the Jamaat’s decision to fight polls “looks like an attempt to safeguard the party that is in a process of rehabilitation in the social and political scene of Kashmir”.

According to a political commentator who has followed Jamaat’s politics over the decades and requested anonymity to speak, the party’s decision marks a “u-turn” and is being seen as “opportunistic” by parts of the cadre.

But Lone disagrees. “India pushed their own people, us, to the wall. We may have failed as people, but India failed as a state,” he said.

Now, Kashmir needs a new beginning, according to him. “We need politics that talks about reconciliation. We are fighting for the mothers of martyrs, who were either killed by militants or the Indian forces,” he said. “When will we reach out to that mother and tell her we are here?”

The Rashid factor

Talat Majeed, who is contesting with the Jamaat’s support in south Kashmir’s Pulwama, a hotbed of rebellion against Indian government, hopes to repeat the success of Sheikh Abdul Rashid – also known as Engineer Rashid  – in the Lok Sabha election.

Rashid’s victory has unleashed a wave of contenders who have been part of anti-India politics in Kashmir and remain in jail on varying charges. Apart from former Jamaat members, Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party has also fielded candidates campaigning on a “jail-free Kashmir” plank, promising to take on Indian government policies, including controversial laws like the Public Safety Act and the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act (UAPA) that many Kashmiris are charged under.

On September 11, ​​a New Delhi court granted Rashid interim bail until October 2 to campaign in the elections. Four days after his release, Rashid’s party announced an alliance with the Jamaat for the polls.

Then there is Sarjan Barkati, a 40-year-old firebrand cleric known for his evocative, theatrical anti-India speeches and slogans which have attracted huge crowds in the past.

While Barkati and his wife are imprisoned, their daughter is leading a campaign for Barkati in Ganderbal, in central Kashmir – the bastion of Kashmir’s Abdullah family that leads the National Conference (NC) party.

The regional parties, including the NC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have welcomed this participation. However, as the election draws closer, so too are tensions between these mainstream parties and candidates backed by the Jamaat and Rashid’s party.

Addressing a campaign rally in central Kashmir, the NC’s Omar Abdullah, who lost to Rashid in the Lok Sabha election and is now contesting the regional election, said he sees Barkati’s nomination as part of New Delhi’s design to intervene in the elections.

“Leaders in Delhi dislike me. But the fact that they hate me so much is getting evident to me,” he said. “Why are candidates in jail only contesting against me?”

Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister and leader of the PDP, has refused to fight elections individually until the region’s statehood is restored. Mufti also accused Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of funding Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party’s campaigns to destabilise bigger regional parties.

Rashid has denied the charge, claiming that he is a “victim” of the BJP.

Meanwhile, Altaf Thakur, a BJP spokesperson, said that “the party respects the decision by the court [to release Rashid on bail] – but his release will impact the elections in J-K hugely”, referring to Jammu and Kashmir. “He has defeated Omar Abdullah recently – and Omar Sahab must be having sleepless nights now.”

As for the Jamaat, the party did not have a proven track record in elections, even when it used to contest them, until the 1980s, winning only a handful of seats. This time around, their participation is also largely expected to fragment the established vote banks in Kashmir, said Baba, and many in Kashmir see this as part of the BJP’s design to weaken traditional parties in Kashmir.

“This discussion would be different if Jamaat had a chance of winning. In reality, they might not even have one seat but only become a factor of disruption,” he said. However, he added that the newly formed alliance with Rashid’s party may give them a further edge by consolidating votes.

But the Jamaat insists that it is no pawn. “Today Jamaat – and Kashmiris – are left with no other option but to participate in this election to reclaim the political space,” said Majeed, the Pulwama candidate.

His colleague Kaleemullah agreed, while conceding that the Jamaat’s participation may benefit both New Delhi and the BJP because of the legitimacy that the party’s participation would bring to the electoral process. “They will be benefitted but we need to think about our own people; they should benefit as well,” he said.

‘Can’t tolerate it’

At a rally addressing hundreds of Jamaat supporters gathered in a dusty ground in their south Kashmir stronghold of Kulgam on September 8, Jamaat leaders insisted that elections were the only way forward for the region.

In the crowd was Mohammad, who requested that he be identified by his first name only. A part of the Jamaat’s youth wing for more than a decade, 35-year-old Mohammad said he had long looked up to the Jamaat for what he views as its advocacy of Kashmiri interests.

But the rally felt strange to him.

“I cannot find my friends or other members of the youth wing in the rally,” he told Al Jazeera. “The youth wing has not extended support to this decision. But no one is willing to resist and voice their resistance – because we fear becoming targets [of security forces, for opposing Indian elections].”

Mohammad has never voted in any election. Majeed is contesting from Mohammad’s constituency, but the youth activist said he is unable to convince himself to vote.

A few minutes into the rally, Mohammad walked out. “Jo dekh rahe hai, woh bardasht nahi ho paa raha hai.” (“I could not tolerate what we were seeing.”)

“Our leaders must have thought this through for the party’s survival, but my heart does not agree to it,” he said.

He is not alone among Jamaat activists torn by the party’s decision – and the divide cuts both ways.

In downtown Srinagar, where the Jamaat has not backed any candidate, Asif is following the election closely.

The 29-year-old was actively engaged in student protests in 2017 and spent time in jail. Two of his friends joined the Hizbul Mujahideen armed group. He never thought that he would one day consider voting in an Indian election. Yet, that is what he plans to do on September 18.

“We have to look for a change in our strategy to resist the occupation, to express ourselves, and defend our identity,” he said. “These are desperate times. Sometimes, not voting is a part of the strategy, and sometimes, voting perhaps becomes the last option to reclaim our rights.”