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LS polls: Omar Abdullah NC’s pick from Baramulla
Party president and former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah announced the candidates on Friday during a press conference
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah will contest Lok Sabha polls from north Kashmir’s Baramulla LoK Sabha constituency, announced National Conference on Friday. From Srinagar, the party has decided to field former minister and prominent Shia leader Aga Ruhullah.
Party president and former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah announced the candidates on Friday during a press conference. “Omar Abdullah will contest on Baramulla Lok Sabha seat and Aga Ruhullah will contest from Srinagar Lok Sabha seat,” Farooq Abdullah told reporters at his house in Gupkar.
In a gambit which is expected to bring better results for NC apart from Abdullah, even Ruhullah has been vociferously against the revocation of Article 370 and has gone even to the extent of berating his own party stressing that the focus should be on the restoration of special status than statehood. The move is also considered ‘good optics’ as NC was fielding its intra-party dissident in the form of Ruhullah.
Omar Abdullah’s entry into the fray could turn the battle of prestige for the National Conference and the Peoples Conference as party chairman Sajjad Lone is also contesting polls from Baramulla Lok Sabha seat. With Omar’s decision to contest parliament polls, he will be the third former J&K chief who will be trying his luck. Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad both former CMs have announced their candidature from Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat.
Omar said that the three parliament members of NC made all the efforts to represent the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir during their tenure. “In future also, the endeavour will be to represent the aspirations of people. Our fight isn’t with the individuals in north Kashmir, my fight isn’t against the candidate but against those forces who are backing him. In Central, north and south Kashmir our fight is against BJP and the Centre government,” said Omar.
He said that he and his party decided to field him from north Kashmir because BJP and Centre are using all their resources in north Kashmir..“I want to defeat these forces in north Kashmir on the order of my party,” he said without naming Sajjad Lone as being supported by the BJP.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but NC wrested it in 2019, with party candidate Akbar Lone winning with a margin of more than 30,000 votes over Peoples Conference’s Raja Ajaz. Independent candidate and former legislator engineer Rashid stood third by bagging over one lakh votes. Rashid who is currently in Tihar jail has decided to contest elections as an independent candidate.
Aga Ruhullah, a prominent Shia leader and former minister, has replaced Farooq Abdullah who is the sitting parliament member from Srinagar. Farooq Abdullah decided to opt out from Lok Sabha polls due to his ill health according to Omar. However, the NC president will campaign across Jammu and Kashmir.
As part of the India bloc, NC and Congress will be contesting on three seats each. National Conference will contest on Baramulla, Anantnag and Srinagar, whereas Congress will contest from Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh.
However, another India bloc partner PDP was left out. PDP will contest on three Kashmir seats while support Congress on both Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats.
