DDC polls: Once bastion of insurgency, BJP holds tonga rally in J&K’s Sopore

Once a bastion of insurgency, this north Kashmir town on Tuesday witnessed a unique election rally with local BJP leaders campaigning on tongas (horse-drawn three-wheeled vehicles) to seek votes for their candidates in the ongoing district development council (DDC) polls.

Sopore, which remained a safe bastion of militants for more than two decades after the insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1990, has seen less violence in recent years. The area has always witness negligible polling during the Assembly and General elections held 1996 onwards.

However, this Tuesday was different as the BJP openly campaigned in the area on tongas. The tonga rally was held in Mazbugh area of the apple rich town and all the tongas were decorated with BJP flags.

"This is a message of peace and in this rally dozens of Tonga wallas participated. We want to tell the people to come out and vote for the BJP candidate in the DDC polls and give a chance to serve the people of Sopore,” Abdul Majeed, a BJP sarpanch told reporters.

BJP General Secretary and J&K affairs incharge, Vibodh Gupta, who was also present at the rally, said that Sopore was previously known as mini-London (as rich people live there), “but militancy and separatism blocked all means of development in this area.”

“Today’s tonga rally is a direct message of people of Sopore that they are with the Prime Minister Narendera Modi. We promise them that if they choose a BJP candidate, we will set up an international (fruit) mandi in Sopore,”(sic) he said.

The DDC polls mark the Centre’s first attempt at restoring democratic processes in J&K, following the revocation of its special status and bifurcation in August 2019. The polls are being held in eight phases starting from November 28 to December 19.

Sopore, famous for its apples, is the hometown of hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani who won several elections from the Assembly constituency prior to joining the separatists’ movement in 1989. The ailing separatist leader comes from Dooru village in Sopore, which is the sixth-largest town in the Union Territory.

Sopore and its adjoining areas are a strong bastion of Jamaat-e-Islami ideologues as well. In 1993, the army took more than a month to clear the town of militants. During the process, more than 350 houses were gutted and 54 civilians were killed.