Tags:
Journalism of Courage
After a meeting of the NC parliamentary board, the party released the list of 22 candidates and announced that the CM will contest
from Sonwar and Beerwah constituencies. Earlier, it was believed that Omar will contest from Ganderbal and another constituency from Srinagar district.
In the past, Ganderbal was represented by NC founder and Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. His father Farooq Abdullah also represented the constituency in 1987 when he became the CM of the state.
Omar himself lost from Ganderbal in 2002 to lesser known Qazi Afzal of the PDP, who was later awarded cabinet post for defeating Omar. However, in 2008 assembly elections, Omar won from Ganderbal defeating Qazi Afzal by a margin of 8,215 votes.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the NC candidate trailed behind the PDP candidate and the party leadership is worried that Omar may lose this seat as many senior NC leaders have deserted the party in Ganderbal recently.
This is the first time Omar is contesting from two places, though in 2008 elections, Farooq contested from Sonwar and Hazratbal seats and won both.
“Omar had conveyed to the party that he will contest elections from only one constituency, but party decided to field him from two constituencies as a well thought strategy,’’ senior NC leader and Omar’s uncle Mustafa Kamal told The Indian Express. He said that Ganderbal was never an NC bastion but members of Sheikh family represented the constituency many times.
While Sonwar is Omar’s native constituency, this time political analysts feel NC is apprehensive as people are angry with the Chief Minister after he shut doors of his house to people during the recent floods. Sonwar will go to polls on November 25 in the first phase while Beerwah will go to polls on December 14 in the fourth phase.
PDP spokesman Nayeem Akhtar termed it as an internal matter of the NC, saying, “Omar can contest from any place in the state.’’
