Rashid’s party releases first list of candidates

Srinagar, August 22

The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) — the party of jailed valley leader and Lok Sabha MP Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid — on Thursday announced the first list of nine candidates for the upcoming Assembly poll in the Union Territory.

During a press conference in Srinagar, party’s chief spokesman Inam-Un-Nabi said they would contest from all seats in the UT and there would be no alliance with any party. Among the nine candidates announced by the party is a former PDP leader who had left the party in anger.

Rashid, who has been in jail since 2019 for being allegedly involved in a money laundering case related to terror funding, contested the recent Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate and defeated former Chief Minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah by a margin of over 2 lakh votes.

The party on Thursday also said they would release the poll manifesto in the coming days. Inam said Rashid had issued instructions to the party from jail to give mandate to people only after consulting the locals of the particular area. He said the party was hopeful that a favourable decision would come next week when a Delhi court would hear the matter regarding the regular bail of Rashid.

Senior party leader Prince Parvaiz recently said the party had approached the court for a 45-day parole so that he could campaign in the Assembly poll.

Hopes to put up a good show

The Awami Ittehad Party is hopeful of putting up a good show in the Assembly poll as Rashid had secured lead in 15 of the 18 Assembly segments that were part of the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.