Srinagar, July 28: Nazir Ahmad Kashani was today elected as the new 'ameer' (chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami after a two-day session of the party ousting Ghulam Mohammed Bhat. Fifty-five-year-old Kashani secured 45 votes in the 97-member house of representative while the outgoing Ameer and moderate leader, Bhat, was second in the race with 30 votes.
Both the houses in the Jamaat-e-Islamia --led by Bhat and fire-brand leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani--claimed Kashani was their representative.
Neither Bhat nor Geelani was available for comments after the elections. Sources inside Jamaat said Kashani's election was a vote for a change as most of the over 1800 basic members of the party were not happy with the functioning of Bhat, who was seen as too moderate to the liking of funadamentalist cadres of the party.
His defeat was also seen as rejection of his soft policy towards People's Conference which was accused by Geelani of fielding dummy candidates in last year's assembly elections.
Sources close to Geelani said he had withdrawn from the race for the top post and had made his intentions clear even before the polling began at a closed door session at Jamaat headquarters in uptown Batmaloo here. The coming days would be watched very keenly especially by the Hurriyat leaders as Kashani would have to spell whether he supported Geelani's line of staying away from the amalgam till People's Conference (PC) was expelled from it or follow his predecessor's path, who had accepted the decision of the conglomerate that PC violated no rules. Bureau Report