Farooq Abdullah to contest from Srinagar constituency, Ghulam Mir from Anantnag
The state’s two main opposition parties, National Conference and Congress, on Wednesday announced that they would jointly contest the upcoming by elections to the two parliamentary constituencies in the Kashmir valley and field their senior most leaders.
The National Conference and Congress have also agreed on a seat-sharing agreement, said NC working president Omar Abdullah while addressing a press conference attended by several leaders of the two parties.
Farooq Abdullah, the most senior leader in the NC and the party president, will contest the byelection from the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, while Ghulam Ahmad Mir, the state president of the Congress, will fight the bypoll from the Anantnag constituency.
“It is not a compulsion, it is a strategy,” Omar said. He said there was “no better strategy” than contesting the byelection jointly.
Omar said the decision to form the alliance and contest the byelection together had been taken after detailed “internal exercise” within both parties. “We have reached a conclusion that if we want to defeat the candidates of the ruling alliance then it is best for us to contest the election together,” he said.
The two parties have assured each other of full support in mobilising the voters for their candidates, Omar said.
Farooq, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 parliamentary election from Srinagar constituency, is the most senior politician in the state. He had lost the last election to Tariq Hameed Karra, who was then part of the PDP. Karra resigned from the Lok Sabha and the party in September last year and joined the Congress last month.
Mir, a veteran Congress politician, will face Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s brother Tassaduq Mufti in the byelection to the south Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency. The seat had fallen vacant after Mehbooba was elected to the Legislative Assembly in July last year.
Omar said the two parties would contest the byelection on a range of issues, including development, and appealed to the Election Commission to direct the state government to provide the “necessary security” to the functionaries of the two parties.
“It is now the responsibility of the Election Commission to give us an environment where we can campaign and give voters an environment where they can vote,” he said.
