Taking a U-turn on his vow of not contesting the assembly elections until Jammu and Kashmir was restored to full statehood, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday announced his candidature from traditional Ganderbal constituency for the upcoming elections.
Omar had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from north Kashmir’s Baramulla against Engineer Rashid who is in Tihar Jail on the charges of terror funding. However, Omar had firmly announced that he would not contest the assembly election until complete statehood was restored to J&K. He said that the Delhi or Puducherry type of statehood in which he will have to sit outside the room of Lt. Governor for appointment of his peon was not acceptable.
However, he took people by surprise when his name appeared in the list of 32 candidates released by the NC this morning. Omar in the past few days had dropped hints that he might reconsider his decision of not contesting the polls.
Speaking to media after the NC and Congress announced their seat-sharing arrangement on Monday, Omar Abdullah said he does not want to send out a “wrong signal” by asking his party colleagues to contest and the people to cast their votes for an assembly “that I may be suggesting that I look down upon”.
This will be the third time Omar will contest from Ganderbal, which is considered a NC stronghold, from where he won in 2008 and 2014 but lost in 2002 from an insignificant PDP candidate. Three generations of the Abdullah family have won assembly elections from Ganderbal. NC founder and Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Abdullah won the seat in 1977, Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah won thrice in 1983, 1987 and 1996.
It is worth mentioning that NC chief Dr. Farooq Abdullah had a few days ago asserted that he will lead the party in the assembly elections and then he will resign and Omar will take over after J&K gets full statehood.
Giving the reason for changing his decision, Omar said, “I am conscious of one thing which I had not thought over fully, which is my mistake. If I was not ready to contest an election for an assembly, how can I get the people ready to vote for that assembly?” Abdullah explained.
He further questioned, “How can I hope that my colleagues will seek votes for an assembly which I am not ready to accept or may be suggesting that I look down upon? It has put a pressure on me and I do not want to give a wrong signal to the people.”