Srinagar, Sep 6: Winds of change have started blowing with woman Kashmiri pandit joining a poll fray in once terror-plagued Pulwama.
Daisy Raina, who has been a sarpanch of Frisal village in Pulwama, has been fielded by the Republican Party of India (Athawale), which is an ally of the BJP as part of the NDA alliance.
Raina will be contesting from the Rajpora Assembly constituency in Pulwama and is one of only nine women contesting the J&K polls. She said she decided to take the plunge because she was forced to do so by youth, who wanted her to be their voice.
“The youth forced me to contest and asked me to ensure that their voice reaches the J&K Assembly. I was working here as a sarpanch and, on the side, I would meet young people, hear them out, and try and understand their problems. Our youth have been suffering despite not being guilty of anything. Young people born in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s have seen only bullets,” Raina told NDTV.
Ramdas Athawale had visited the Union Territory recently and said that statehood should be restored, and when Ms Raina was asked whether that was when it was decided that she would contest the Assembly elections, she answered in the negative.
“I had not even thought of contesting the elections. Young people asked me to become the chief minister for one day, saying that I could fix Pulwama,” she said.
Apart from the other problems faced by residents, Pulwama has been a hotbed of terrorists and the site of the 2019 attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed. To a question on whether she thought Pulwama had an unsavory reputation, the Republican Party of India (Athawale) leader said, “I don’t think so. Work is going on well. All my work is getting done… If there is a problem, we have created it.”
Raina emphasized that she has experienced no difficulties despite not having many people from her community living in the region.
“When I came here to work, I used to move around in Pulwama without any security. I did not have any personal security officers (PSOs). Some people kept PSOs but I did not. I worked here for years and even established a Shivling in Pulwama. Muslims asked me to do so because I had got a wazukhana (ablution pond) constructed and did many other things for them. They said Hindus would get angry if I did not do anything for that community as well,” she said.
Raina worked in New Delhi and then got elected unopposed as a sarpanch in 2020.