The National Conference (NC) has announced senior party leader Mian Altaf Ahmed Lahrvi as its candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri seat of Jammu and Kashmir, virtually ending any prospects of alliance with former Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti.
The Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat is the home constituency of Mehbooba Mufti, whose party is a partner in opposition INDIA bloc as is Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference. Both Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti attended the INDIA bloc show-of-strength ‘Loktantra Bachao’ rally in New Delhi on March 31.
A PDP stronghold
Lahrvi’s candidature was announced by NC vice president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on April 1, a day after the New Delhi rally.
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Mehbooba Mufti won the seat in 2014 while her father and PDP founder late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has also represented the seat in the Lok Sabha. In 2019, the seat was won by NC’s Hasnain Masoodi. Mehbooba Mufti had finished third.
In fact all three seats of Kashmir division were won by the NC in 2019. The two seats in Jammu division and the lone seat in Ladakh was won by the BJP. Lahrvi is a five-time former MLA who has also been a Cabinet minister in the previous NC governments.
The National Conference has been publicly insisting on contesting on all three seats in Kashmir while PDP wanted to field its candidate from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat. Both the parties have declared to contest the Lok Sabha polls on their own.
Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Jawaharlal Nehru made ‘two blunders’ in J&K, says Amit Shah
Earlier knows an Anantnag, the seat was rechristened as Anantnag-Rajouri after Poonch and Rajouri districts were also included in it in the 2022 delimitation. While the Anantnag region is South Kashmir is dominated by Muslims Poonch and Rajouri districts have a sizeable Gujjar and Pahari population. Lahrvi is a prominent Gujjar religious leader.
BJP making inroads
Post delamination, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to make inroads into Kashmir division and increase its share of two seats of Jammu that it won in 2019. The party hopes to benefit after the inclusion of the Gujjar-Bakerwal-dominated belts in the parliament seat and by the Union governments move to extend Scheduled Tribe (ST) reservation to the Pahari community.
Also Read: BJP used Article 370 as political football, or why would PM Modi promote a movie on the topic: Omar Abdullah
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government on August 5, 2019, revoked Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The upcoming Lok Sabha elections would be the first polls to be held in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370. The voting in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in five phases beginning April 19 and the counting of the votes will take place on June 4.
The erstwhile state, administered by the Centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor since 2018 is also scheduled to see Assembly Polls later this year.
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Published: 02 Apr 2024, 09:18 AM IST