In a strategic electoral move, the National Conference (NC) on Friday named its vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah as its candidate for north Kashmir’s Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.
The party also announced to field a senior NC leader Aga Syed Ruhulla from Srinagar, which is presently represented by the party chief Dr Farooq Abdullah.
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The announcement of replacing the sitting MP Mohammad Akbar Lone with Omar Abdullah was made by Dr Abdullah in a press conference in Srinagar. Polling for the seat will be held on 20 May.
With this, the NC has announced its candidates for all the three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir, while it is supporting Congress candidates on the two seats of Jammu. The PDP, which is also a partner of the INDIA bloc, has also announced its three candidates. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has been named the candidate for south Kashmir’s Anantnag seat.
The contest in Baramulla now will be mainly between NC’s Omar, PDP’s Fayaz Ahmad Mir, who is a former Rajya Sabha member, and Sajad Lone of the People’s Conference.
Omar, who was also present in the press conference, challenged the BJP to field its own candidates in Kashmir instead of backing proxies. He was apparently referring to a reported meeting between a top BJP functionary and Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari and Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone.
Omar said there should be no surprise in his candidature from north Kashmir. ”The last Assembly seat, Beerwah, which I represented is also in the north,” he said.
Dr Farooq Abdullah said that the influential Shia leader, Aga Syed Ruhulla Mehdi, will contest from the Srinagar constituency.
It is worth mentioning that after abrogation of Article 370, and degradation of J&K state into a union territory in 2019, Omar had announced that he would not contest the Assembly elections unless J&K’s statehood was restored.
The NC had earlier announced an influential spiritual leader of the Gujjar community, Mian Altaf, its candidate for south Kashmir’s Anantnag seat.
