{"id":188,"date":"2014-03-26T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmir-today.net\/ls-polls-woman-contestant-in-kashmir-after-two-decades\/"},"modified":"2014-03-26T15:44:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T15:44:00","slug":"ls-polls-woman-contestant-in-kashmir-after-two-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"LS polls: Woman contestant in Kashmir after two decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div><b style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">Srinagar: <\/b><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">After a gap of two decades, a woman is set to contest parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir as an independent candidate.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Nirupama Kaul alias Rabia Baji, who runs a nongovernmental group in Kashmir,&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;announced that she will contest the election from Srinagar slated in the months of April and May.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Begam Abdullah, chief minister\u2019s Omar Abdullah\u2019s grandmother, had successfully contested the parliamentary elections from Srinagar in 1984.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Rabia, who was in the news after 65 Kashmir students were expelled from a university in India\u2019s Meerut, during a press conference at her Raj Bagh office said: I will contest the election as an independent candidate.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Rabia, who runs the All India Centre for Urban and Rural Development (AICURD, J&amp;K), will be the first woman from the state to fight the parliamentary elections after nearly two decades.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">According to GNS, Rabia, said \u2018she will not contest as a leader\u2019, but, \u2018as a representative of a common Kashmir people whose voice are unheard in the Indian Parliament\u2019.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">She is set to announce her manifesto within coming days \u2018after proper consultation with various cross sections of society\u2019. \u201cI am not contesting against anyone but am contesting for the voice of youth and suppressed women who do not get their choice of representation and relief for their suffering and needs,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;Rabia said youth are the pillar and the backbone of the society. \u201cIf the youth is strong, the society is strong, same for the women, who are the foundation stone of a family. If women are economically, socially and physically strong, then the society also becomes strong,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;The students expelled from the SVSU University were sent to study there on Prime Minister\u2019s scholarship scheme through Rabia\u2019s group.While commenting on the sedition charges leveled on Kashmir students, she said their suspension order has not been revoked. \u201cI had called a meeting of the parents of suspended students. Some of them are concerned for the safety of their wards and want a migration from the varsity and some want to rejoin their studies at the university,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Rabia said those who are issuing statements in connection with the ousting of these students should answer why they turned their heads when asked to assist the students in 2010. \u201cNow, they are issuing statements regarding the issue as part of their election gimmick,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Rabia will be contesting against National Conference (NC) patron and union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah \u2013 who is currently Member of Parliament from Srinagar Constituency. Traditionally, Srinagar is NC\u2019s stronghold, and it had swept Assembly elections as well in 2008.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">The others who are contesting parliament elections this year are Tariq Hamid Qarra of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Aam Aadmi Party\u2019s Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a former PDP worker who had joined the opposition after working as an RTI campaigner. (GNS)<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar: After a gap of two decades, a woman is set to contest parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir as an independent candidate. Nirupama Kaul alias Rabia Baji, who runs a nongovernmental group in Kashmir,&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;announced that she will contest the election from Srinagar slated in the months of April and May. Begam Abdullah, chief minister\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}