As the contest for the prestigious Udhampur Lok Sabha seat has touched its peak, National Conference (NC) leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah was on Sunday accorded a warm welcome when he reached Banihal and many other places to campaign for the Congress candidate Chaudhary Lal Singh. Polling for the seat will be held in the first phase on 19 April.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh is the BJP candidate for the seat that is witnessing a high-pitched campaign.

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Pradesh Congress chief Vikar Rasool Wani accompanied Abdullah and despite inclement weather a large number of people gathered raising slogans in favour of NC and Congress. The two leaders addressed a well attended election rally at Khari in Banihal.

Abdullah and Wani slammed the BJP for “destroying the democratic system and indulging in divisive politics that has hit the pluralistic fabric of the country”.

They said that secularism alone can maintain unity and integrity of the country as well as that of Jammu and Kashmir.
”Rights of people have been snatched, resources looted and our Statehood downgraded to a Union Territory (UT),” they said.

Abdullah also addressed gatherings of a large number of people at Ramban and Batote.
Thereafter, he proceeded to Doda where he is scheduled to address a series of election rallies in favour of the Congress candidate Chaudhary
Lal Singh who is contesting against the Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is the BJP candidate for the Udhampur seat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath have already campaigned for Dr Jitendra Singh.
Although the NC and PDP, which are INDIA bloc partners, are pitched against each other on all the three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir valley, but both are supporting the Congress candidates on the two seats of Jammu.

Although no senior leader of PDP has so far campaigned in favour of the two Congress candidates on the Jammu and Udhampur seats, NC chief Dr Farooq Abdullah has already addressed a series of election rallies for the Congress candidates on both seats. Besides Jammu, he held rallies also in parts of the Udhampur constituency.

The NC enjoys considerable support in the Banihal, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar areas that are part of the Udhampur constituency.
Omar Abdullah, who is himself contesting the election for north Kashmir’s Baramulla seat, has come to the Jammu division to support the Congress candidates.

Earlier, he said that ”The largest onslaught of Delhi we are seeing is in north Kashmir. My fight in north Kashmir is against proxies of the BJP.”

Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chief Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been announced the candidate for south Kashmir’s Anantnag seat, is also busy campaigning in the Udhampur constituency in favour of his trusted lieutenant GM Saroori who is the party candidate there.