The iftar parties hosted earlier this week by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti in the Rajouri and Poonch districts are being seen as her spadework for contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Anantnag seat on which National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah has already laid his party’s claim.
Mehbooba hosted separate iftar parties in the twin border districts of Jammu divisions that were merged with South Kashmir’s Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in the recent delimitation.
Although Mehbooba has not yet clarified whether she will contest the election against the NC or not, her iftar parties have triggered speculations on the issue. These parties were also followed by some influential persons of the area joining the PDP.
Mehbooba is seen meeting people and enjoying the parties in the videos posted on social media by the PDP.
The Anantnag seat will go to polls in the third phase on 7 May but the INDIA alliance, so far, has not been able to settle the dispute between Omar and Mehbooba on sharing the three Lok Sabha seats of the Kashmir valley. Omar is adamant about NC contesting all the three seats currently being represented by his party MPs.
However, the PDP wants Mehbooba to contest from Anantnag which she won in 2014.
The iftar politics has not remained confined to Rajouri and Poonch as Omar and Mehbooba hosted separate parties in Srinagar as well. Thereafter, Mehbooba hosted another iftar party in a high-class hotel in Jammu.
The two Lok Sabha seats of the Jammu region are being contested by the Congress, with the backing from other allies of the INDIA bloc.
Of the total five Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, the Anantnag constituency is in the spotlight because after its merger with Rajouri and Poonch, the BJP is for the first time making serious efforts to win the seat and establish its presence in the Kashmir valley.
In the past, Anantnag has been a fortress of PDP with Mehbooba’s father Mufti Sayeed representing it in the Lok Sabha in 1998, and, thereafter, Mehbooba herself winning it in 2004 and 2014. Moreover, the Bijbehara assembly segment has been the home assembly constituency of the Muftis. However, in 2019, NC candidate Hasnain Masoodi defeated Mehbooba in this constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.
Amid claims and counter-claims for the seat being made by the NC and the PDP, several political activists of Rajouri and Poonch have urged Mehbooba to jump into the poll arena from Anantnag.