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Sajjad Lone files nominations papers for J&K polls from Handwara, Kupwara seats
Sajjad Lone, a former minister and MLA from Handwara, was accompanied by his supporters to the offices of Kupwara and Handwara — the only two seats that Lone’s party had won in the 2014 assembly polls — returning officers
People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone filed his papers from Handwara and Kupwara assembly seats as the nomination process for the third and final phase of elections came to a close on Thursday.
From Baramulla assembly seat, former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig filed his nominations as an independent candidate.
Lone, a former minister and MLA from Handwara, was accompanied by his supporters to the offices of Kupwara and Handwara — the only two seats that Lone’s party had won in the 2014 assembly polls — returning officers.
Addressing the crowd in Handwara, the leader said he expected people to vote for him again, adding, “Alhamdulillah, we have won last time as well and have done a lot of work and I have full faith in people that we will win this time as well.”
Lone is a former separatist from north Kashmir who joined pro-India politics by fighting parliamentary elections in 2009 and ultimately started a mainstream political party - PC. The mainstream party has grown substantially since then.
While the Handwara segment is Lone’s home constituency where he won in 2014 assembly elections, he was pushed by his party workers to fight from Kupwara seat as well after he came third to lose the recent Lok Sabha elections to Engineer Abdul Rashid in Baramulla parliamentary constituency.
Both Handwara and Kupwara segments in Kupwara district dall under the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Sajad had managed to take the lead in Handwara segment by getting 26,275 votes against Er Rashid’s 19,336. In the 2014 assembly elections, he had defeated National conference’s Choudhary M Ramzan by 5,400 votes to win Handwara.
Lone refused to talk about the release of Engineer Rashid on bail but castigated Omar Abdullah and his party.
“Omar should clearly tell who should fight against him and is not with agencies because whoever decided to fight against him, he tags the person the same. We are being ridiculed as every other Kashmiri is calling each other an agency person,” he said, while raising slogans like “BJP ka jo yar hai, gaddar hai gaddar hai (Whoever is in tandem with the BJP is a traitor)” to distance himself from the saffron party.
Meanwhile, former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig submitted his nomination as an independent candidate from Baramulla assembly seat. An MP from 2014 to 2019, he was one of the founding members of Peoples Democratic Party but is not currently affiliated with any political party.
“God willing, we will fulfil the dream of making Baramulla a bright and developed space across Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Thursday was the last day to file nominations for the third and final phase of elections to 40 assembly constituencies (ACs) in the districts of Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipora, Udhampur, Kathua, Samba and Jammu. The elections to these constituencies will be held on October 01.
As per the notification, the scrutiny of the nomination papers shall take place on September 13, 2024 (Friday) and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is September 17, 2024 (Tuesday).
A total of 483 candidates have filed 518 nomination papers for the third phase of the forthcoming Assembly Election 2024, a statement from the office of chief electoral officer informed. As many as 122 candidates have filed their nominations in Jammu district, followed by 111 in Baramulla district, 80 in Kupwara district, 50 in Bandipora district, 47 in Kathua district, 40 in Udhampur district, while 33 candidates have filed nominations in Samba district.
The first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in a decade will be held in three phases on September 18 and 25, and October 1. This is also the first assembly polls in the restive region since its special status and statehood were scrapped five years ago and is likely to be the last step before the Union territory’s statehood is restored.
