NVI Correspondent
Srinagar, Sep 1 (NVI): After showing his reluctance to contest elections that are being held after a decade in J&K, National Conference vice president and the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K, Omar Abdullah recently announced that he will contest from Ganderbal.
Ganderbal has been a home turf for National Conference, given the fact that NC patriarch late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah used to contest from the same seat. Sheikh won Ganderbal seat first time in 1977. His son Dr Farooq Abdullah bagged the seat thrice in 1983, 1987 and also in 1996. Omar won from Ganderbal in 2008.
In 2014, Sheikh Abdul Jabbar, the son of Sheikh Abdullah’s close confidant, Sheikh Abdul Jabbar contested from Ganderbal and won on NC ticket. He, however, developed differences with the party and floated his own party—J&K United Movement.
Omar’s decision to contest from Ganderbal was taken by the NC Parliamentary Affairs Committee. In his first public interaction with the people of Ganderbal last week, Omar said that people of Ganderbal constituency must give him another chance to serve the way they did in 2008. He also said that since 2008, he has learned a lot.
“I will not take any election casually,” he said, referring to his recent defeat in North Kashmir Parliamentary seat . “From the Lok Sabha polls, I have learned a big lesson.”
Now that Omar is once again in the fray, the ground is not so easy for him to walk ahead. Locals in Ganderbal Assembly constituency told NVI that this time “there is a slogan– vocal for local” raised by the youth which signifies that there has to be a local candidate and votes would go in his kitty.
Omar is banking on elderly vote share and committed party workers. He will face PDP’s Bashir Mir, who gave NC leader Mian Altaf a tough competition in 2014 election and bagged over 25000 votes in Kangan Assembly seat. Now that the Kangan Assembly seat was reserved for Schedule Tribes, Mir shifted to Ganderbal battle ground where he will lock horns with Omar.
In Kangan, Mian Altaf, who emerged victorious in recently held parliamentary polls from South Kashmir parliamentary polls, has fielded his son Mian Mehar Ali from Kangan.
There will be a direct battle between Omar and Mir even though Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar may also make the contest more interesting given his committed vote share.
A group of youth told NVI that this time they want a change and they will vote for Mir, who is not only vocal but a local also. “Gone are the days, when people were befooled through dynasty politics,” they said. “We want a candidate whom we can reach out to within minutes not the one who lives far away from Ganderbal.”
However, on the other hand, elderly voters of NC believe Omar is their first choice. “We will vote for Omar. He is our leader and future lies with him. We can’t change our loyalty. We are committed voters of NC,” said Ghulam Mohiudin, a shopkeeper at Beehama, Ganderbal. (News Vibes of India)
