A historic event is going to happen in the upcoming assembly elections of Jammu and Kashmir. For the first time in three decades, a Kashmiri Pandit woman is going to contest the elections. Her name is Daisy Raina. Daisy earlier worked in a private company in Delhi but now she is going to contest the elections. She has been the Sarpanch of Frisal village in Pulwama district and will now contest from Rajpora assembly constituency.
Daisy Raina has been nominated by the Republican Party of India (Athawale), which is part of the NDA alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Daisy Raina is one of the nine women who are going to try their luck in these elections of Jammu and Kashmir. Raina said that she has entered politics on the request of the youth.
Speaking to NDTV, he said, “The youth inspired me to contest the election. They asked me to raise their voice in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. I worked as a sarpanch here and met the youth and tried to understand their problems. Our youth are suffering without any fault. Kashmiri youth born in the 1990s have only heard the sound of bullets.”
Ramdas Athawale had recently visited the Union Territory and said that statehood should be restored. “I had not even thought of contesting the election. Young people asked me to become the chief minister for a day, saying I could fix Pulwama,” Daisy said.
Apart from the everyday problems, Pulwama has been a stronghold of terrorists and was also the site of a deadly 2019 attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed. Asked if she feels Pulwama has a bad image, the Republican Party of India (Athawale) leader said, “I don’t think so. Work is going on fine. All my work is getting done… If there is any problem, it is we who have created it.”
Daisy said, “When I came here to work, I used to roam around Pulwama without any security. I did not have any personal security officer (PSO). Some people had PSOs, but I did not. I worked here for years and even installed a Shivling in Pulwama. The Muslims asked me to do so because I had built a wazukhana for them and done many other things. They said the Hindus would get angry if I did not do anything for my own community too.”
