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| NC to race against PDP in Pulwama, Sopian | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Dec 11: The Peoples Democratic Party and the National Conference are locked in a nearly straight battle in South Kashmir and the Congress is encircled by number of rebels in Kathua district as campaign this evening ended for fifth phase of polling scheduled for Saturday.
Heavyweights to try their fate in Saturday include PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and Congress’ Member Parliament Chowdhary Lal Singh. While PDP has an almost direct contest in Pulwama and Shopian district of Kashmir, for Congress Kathua is a do or die battle.
179 contestants, including five women and 58 independents, are in fray in the fifth phase of elections in the State. Of them, Pulwama district in Kashmir division has the highest number of 73 contestants in fray, which include 21 from Tral, 15 from Pampore, 19 from Pulwama and 18 from Rajpora Assembly constituencies. 40 contestants are contesting from Shopian district, which include 19 from Wachi and 21 from Shopian Assembly constituencies.
In Kathua district, 66 contestants are in fray, out of which 11 are in Bani, nine in Basohli, 20 in Kathua, 15 in Billawar and 11 in Hiranagar Assembly constituencies. In comparison, only 97 candidates were in fray in these 11 constituencies in 2002 Assembly elections. Of them, 3 candidates contested from Tral, 10 from Pampore, 6 each from Pulwama, Rajpora, Wachi, Shopian and Bani, 9 from Basohli, 22 from Kathua, 14 from Billawar and 9 from Hiranagar constituency.
Besides the NC and PDP, the two major political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, the others in the fray are the Congress, the Panthers' Party, the Awami National Conference (ANC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), besides some Independents or unattached contestants.
Pulwama and Shopian districts are considered strongholds of the PDP. NC leaders have been campaigning aggressively against the PDP in south Kashmir targeting mainly PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her father, former chief minister and party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
All eyes are on the Wachi constituency from where Mehbooba Mufti is pitched against Muhammad Khalil Naik (CPI-M), who is seeking re-election, and Showkat Ahmad (NC). Though there are 17 other candidates, the contest in expected to be mainly among the three.
In the Shopian constituency, Abdul Razak (PDP), Shabir Ahmad (NC) and Gulam Hassan Khan, an Independent, are the main contestants. Gulshana Parveen of the Samajwadi Party is also contesting there.
Khan had won the seat in 2002 elections on PDP ticket, but this time he is fighting as an independent after being denied the PDP mandate by the party high command.
In Tral, Gulam Nabi Bhat, who won the seat in 2002 as an NC candidate, is pitted against his younger brother Muhammad Ashraf Bhat as the party decided on a change and Mushtaq Ahmad Shah (PDP).
In Pulwama, Muhammad Khalil Band (PDP) is seeking re-election and his main rivals will be G.N. Ratanpuri (NC) though 17 other parties and independents are also in the fray there. Prominent among the independents are two former ministers, Bashir Ahmad Nengroo and Sonaullah Dar.
Zahoor Ahmad Mir (PDP) is seeking re-election from Pampore and other contenstants are Gulam Nabi Mir (NC) and 13 others. In Rajpora, Syed Bashir (PDP) is seeking re-election and his main rival is G.N. Wani (NC).
Mehbooba Mufti has shifted to the third constituency since 1996 when she entered politics. She first contested polls from Bijbehra constituency, then shifted to Pahalgam in 2002 and now is testing the waters in Wachi. In Kathua district, Congress had won three seats - Bani, Basholi and Hira Nagar. The other two were won by independents.
South Kashmir's 16 constituencies in the four districts of Anatnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama are considered as stronghold of the PDP. The National Conference had won only two seats, so had the CPI-M and Congress. Rest of the 10 seats were won by PDP.
There are 838,953 voters in the 11 constituencies, of these 406,331 are in five constituencies of Kathua, followed by 293,127 for four constituencies of Pulwama and 139,127 for two constituencies of Shopian district. |
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