Srinagar: Naseer Ahmad Mir, the son of J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, lost the DDC election from Verinag seat in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, to none other than Peer Shahbaz Ahmad, who was expelled from the Congress just before the election, apparently to clear the way for Ghulam Mir’s son to contest from Verinag. Peer Shahbaz won the seat as an Independent with a good margin of votes.
Peer was the Block Development Council (BDC) Chairman in his native area of Verinag when the Congress ousted him. He decided to fight the DDC polls independently after the Congress tarnished him with accusations of indulging in anti-party activities.
The results announced on Tuesday said that Peer Shahbaz had defeated his rival candidate of the Congress by a margin of 639 votes. As per the official figures, Peer secured a total of 4,734 votes while Naseer Ahmad Mir got 4,095.
Initially, in the first three rounds of counting, Mir was leading with a small margin. But, several rounds ahead, the Independent candidate took the lead and continued to hold it till his victory.
Expressing joy over his success, Peer Shahbaz told Kashmir Reader that it was time to rejoice and to thank people for their unconditional support despite obstacles and pressures that were put in their way.
“I want to thank people for all their support and love. It was an extremely hard task to defeat such a powerful candidate backed by the JKPCC chief. My people chose me despite facing obstacles and pressures during the past several weeks,” he said.
The victory of Peer Shahbaz also deals a big blow to the Congress party in Kashmir. Its regional chief’s son has lost to an independent candidate in a constituency where the Congress had a strong foothold. Ghulam Mir himself has been MLA of the Dooru constituency several times and has also served as cabinet minister in the NC-led coalition government with the Congress in J&K.
In Verinag, six candidates were in the fray, among whom one belonged to the Congress, one to the BJP, and four were independents. The competition, however, was between Peer Shahbaz and Naseer Mir. The BJP candidate, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, only managed to get 108 votes.

KALEEM GEELANI