J&K Assembly polls: Omar Abdullah to contest from family-favourite Ganderbal seat

Srinagar, Aug 27 (IANS) Putting all speculation to rest, former Chief Minister and National Conference vice president, Omar Abdullah will fight the J&K Assembly election from the Ganderbal constituency as per the list of candidates issued by the NC on Tuesday.  

The NC released its second list of 32 candidates for the rest of the phases of Assembly elections. On Monday evening, the party released names of 18 candidates who will contest the upcoming Assembly elections in the first phase of polling.

Omar Abdullah figures in the list of NC candidates and has also stated that he will fight from the Ganderbal constituency.

Mian Meher Ali, son of senior NC leader and Lok Sabha member Mian Altaf Ahmad, will fight from the Kangan constituency of Ganderbal district.

The Ganderbal district has two Assembly constituencies -- Ganderbal and Kangan.

Omar Abdullha's grandfather and NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah fought the election from Ganderbal in 1975 when he returned to mainstream politics.

The Assembly constituency has also been represented by Omar’s father, Dr Farooq Abdullah thrice.

Omar Abdullah won this seat once and was defeated by Qazi Mohammad Afzal of PDP in the 2002 elections.

Mian Meher Ali is fighting the election from the Kangan seat for the first time. Kangan has been a traditional stronghold of the Mian family. This constituency was successively won by Meher’s grandfather, Mian Bashir Ahmad and later by his father, Mian Altaf Ahmad.

The NC has fielded Tanveer Sadiq from Zadibal, former mayor of Srinagar municipal corporation Salman Sagar from Hazratbal, his father and senior NC leader Ali Mohammad Sagar from Khanyar, Shameema Firdous from Habba Kadal, Mushtaq Guroo from Chanapora, Ahsan Pardesi from Lal Chowk and Mubarak Gul from Eidgah Constituency.

With Tuesday’s list of candidates, NC has fielded 50 candidates in the J&K Assembly elections. And, nominations for two more seats are pending.

The earlier list included former minister and MLA Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan for Handwara, Irshad Rasool Kar for Sopore, Javaid Ahmad Dar for Rafiabad, Dr Sajad Shafi Uri for Uri seat, Javaid Hussain Beigh for Baramulla, former bureaucrat Farooq Ahmad Shah from Tangmarg, former police officer Javid Riyaz Bedar from Pattan, Hilal Akbar Lone from Sonawari, former MLA, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi from Gurez (ST) and former MLA, Ajay Kumar Sadhotra from Jammu North.

The NC also announced candidates for Pampore, Pulwama, Rajpora, Zainpora, Shopian, D.H. Pora, Devsar, Larnoo, Anantnag West and Bijbehara.

In the seat-sharing agreement between the NC and the Congress announced on Monday, the NC will fight 52 and Congress on 31 seats while two seats have been left for CPI(M) and Panthers Party.

Unable to reach an agreement on five seats of Sopore, Doda, Nagrota, Banihal and Bhaderwah, it was decided that both NC and Congress would field candidates for these five seats to fight a ‘friendly contest’.

--IANS

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