The Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) headed by jailed Member of Parliament (MP) Abdul Rashid Sheikh aka Engineer Rashid, on Thursday announced that the party would contest all seats in the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir
The party said that it would not enter into a pre-poll alliance with any party.
“We will contest from all the seats,” AIP chief spokesman Inam-Un-Nabi said during a press conference.
Engineer’s Rashid party is trying to build on the tempo from the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, when he defeated former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah and Peoples Conference (JKPC) Chief Sajad Lone from the Baramulla Lok Sabha Constituency by a margin of over two lakh votes.
Inam said the AIP would release the party manifesto for the polls in a few days.
“Our manifesto will not be like other political parties who only make tall claims. Whatever we will promise in our manifesto we will explain the modus operandi to do such a thing. It will be a creative manifesto,” he said.
The AIP Chief Spokesman announced the names of its nine candidates for the polls.
The candidates include Abdula Qayoom Mir from Pampore; Harbaksh Singh, who quit the Peoples Democratic Party few days ago, from Tral; Sofi Iqbal from Pulwama, Molvi Fayaz Wagay from Zainapora, Shopian, Mohammad Arif Dar from DH Pora, Kulgam, Suhail Bhat from Devsar, Kulgam, Hilal Ahmad Malik from Dooru, Anantnag, Aqib Mushtaq from Anantnag West and Tawseef Nisar from Anantnag.
Inam said that they have a clear cut direction from Engineer Rashid, who is lodged in Tihar jail in New Delhi, to give tickets to those candidates only after getting feedback from the local people of that area.
Engineer Rashid has moved a Delhi court seeking a regular bail. The court on Tuesday sought a response from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the application. The case has been listed on August 28.
