Engineer Rashid to take oath as MP Friday, his party sets eyes on Assembly polls

WHEN SHEIKH Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, comes out on parole to take oath as newly elected MP on Friday, it would be another moment that his party leaders would have not believed possible months ago.

Ishtiyaq Qadri, who is the chairman of the Political Affairs Committee of Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party, talks about the first. It was during the Lok Sabha election campaign for the Baramulla seat, when a sea of people gathered in Beerwah to greet the truck Qadri and other party leaders were canvassing in, on behalf of Rashid.

The 75-year-old, a trade union leader-turned-politician, says he was stunned. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were people all around, tears welled up in my eyes,” says Qadri, adding that at that moment he knew that Rashid would “secure a massive win”.

Imprisoned in Tihar since 2019 in an alleged money laundering case related to terror funding, Rashid won from Baramulla defeating two heavyweights – former chief minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference’s leader Sajad Gani Lone. He finished two lakh votes ahead of Omar.

Crediting god for Rashid’s win, Qadri says it was also surprising as the decision that he would contest was taken at the last minute, with Rashid’s 23-year-old son Abrar stepping in to take charge of the campaign.

“We didn’t promise anything, we didn’t talk about Article 30, 35A or development. We only talked about his (Rashid’s) release. There was symbolism. We wanted every innocent out of jail and Engineer Rashid was a symbol (of that). Yet, people identified with us, they came to our rallies and they voted for us,” Qadri says, adding that Abrar’s contribution was “brilliant”.

Since the results, Abrar is back in college.