North Kashmir is brimming with support for jailed politician Sheikh Abdul Rashid aka Engineer Rashid, one of Delhi’s most hated men in Kashmir and a close-to-perfect fit for its “anti-national” stereotype.

Thousands — men and women, mostly young — have been gathering in every corner of the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency since the past fortnight, vowing to avenge his long detention through their vote.

Engineer’s Awami Ittehad Party has been in tatters since his arrest on terror funding charges five years ago, and his family is struggling to find resources.

But ordinary people are keeping his campaign running by pooling money for
posters and pamphlets, and providing the scores of cars, tractors and pickup trucks that ferry his countless supporters to the rally sites every day, the party says.

“Tihar ka badla vote sey lenge (We will avenge his Tihar detention with our votes),” goes the rallying cry.

“A jailed Engineer is more powerful than a free Engineer. He represents sentiments,” said Rizwan, a young man.

These “sentiments” had drawn Rizwan to Narbal on Srinagar’s outskirts at 7.30am on Wednesday to accompany a motorcade heading to Beerwah, the constituency that elected Omar Abdullah to the Assembly in 2014.

Engineer, a two-time MLA, was the first mainstream politician arrested by the National Investigation Agency following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5, 2019. He is in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

His is an unlikely election campaign, and not just because of the crowd-funding. This brazen defiance of the authorities in support of an “anti-national” enjoys full State protection, prompted by the government’s anxiety to prevent any unpleasant incident and the Election Commission’s intent to prove its “fairness”.

Dozens of policemen escort these motorcades wherever they go.

Engineer’s party has not got the money to set up lavish stages and prefers to address rallies in bazaars. The motorcades have visited far-off villages like Rathsun, Chewdara and Ohangam in Beerwah to meet voters, unlike the established players who prefer bringing their supporters to select venues.

Leading Engineers’ campaign in his absence is his son and MSc student Abrar Rashid, 23.

“I will be in politics till May 20 (the day Baramulla votes). I have my first semester paper on May 25. The exams are on the back of my mind while I campaign,” Abrar told The Telegraph, sitting on a pick-up truck.

Engineer had announced his decision to contest the polls from jail through Abrar a fortnight ago. His entry made the contest — till then seen as a fight between the heavyweights Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and Sajad Lone of the People’s Conference — a triangular one.

Abrar said his father had always kept him away from politics but he had taken the plunge (into campaigning) to see him and others like him free. “We were expecting the Government of India to release him but it didn’t happen,” he said.

“My only purpose is to get him released and open the doors for the release of other innocents. The people’s court is the biggest court. If people decide to send him to Parliament, perhaps those at the helm will respect the people’s verdict and release him.”

Engineer is pitted against two established players with strong party networks, while most of those in his rallies are youths, many under the voting age. Still, the jailed politician is fast threatening to disturb his two opponents’ calculations.

For the country’s leaders, Engineer’s entry has rendered Baramulla more than an electoral battle. Here is a politician challenging the might of Delhi which, using jackboot tactics, has largely succeeded in silencing people in the years after 2019 and selling its all-is-well narrative to the international audience.

The show of solidarity for Engineer is an affront to Delhi, turning its narrative on its head.

Engineer’s party members claim he has been booked under anti-terror UAPA on flimsy grounds. But his background is hard to ignore.

As a legislator, his methods were peaceful. During the 2010 summer agitation in Kashmir, he took a delegation of Delhi’s interlocutors to his home constituency, Langate, where he got hundreds to take a pledge not to engage in stone-throwing.

But subsequently, he did so much to offend the BJP-led central government that he was dumped by friend and foe alike after his arrest. Local politicians either saw him as a threat to their own brand of politics, or were simply unwilling to offend the government.

Even the multi-party People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which is campaigning for the restoration of Article 370, never appealed for his release.

Over the past decade, Engineer had as an MLA championed Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. He had gone to the extent of praising the role of militants and favoured talks with Hizb boss Syed Salahuddin. He had moved a resolution in the Assembly seeking clemency for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was eventually hanged.

The popular participation in his rallies has surprised the party itself. “We never expected such support. On day one, when we announced his candidature, we were only a handful of people,” Abrar’s aide Lone Saju said.

“We addressed the first rally in Uri around a fortnight ago, where we had just 50 people listening. The following day, the crowd was bigger and today you have a sea of people.”

It remains a mystery why the authorities allowed Engineer to contest the elections. According to the grapevine, Delhi is trying to gauge his popularity and might in future attempt to rope him in if such a need arises.

Abrar said his father was an undertrial and therefore entitled to contest elections. He thanked the NIA court and the Election Commission for allowing him to contest.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Engineer had bagged 1.02 lakh votes against the 1.03 lakh polled by People’s Conference candidate Raja Aijaz Ali. Mohammad Akbar Lone of the National Conference won with 1.33 lakh votes.

The BJP is believed to have thrown its weight behind Sajad Lone, a former separatist, asking all the pro-State political leaders in the constituency to support him.

Baramulla votes on May 20