news details |
|
|
| NC calls 2-day meet to select candidates | | PDP’s Pir Hussain files nomination papers in Anantnag | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Apr 9: Fifteen candidates, including National Conference’s Dr Mehboob Beg and PDP’s Pir Mohammad Hussain, have filed nomination papers till deadline of the process today for the South Kashmir Lok Sabha seat of Anantnag-Pulwama. NC has, meanwhile, called a two-day meeting of leaders and workers, to select candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar-Budgam and Baramulla-Kupwara as also the Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonwar.
Official sources said that twelve more candidates filed their nomination papers before Returning Officer and DC Anantnag on the last day of the process today. They include PDP’s Pir Mohammad Hussain. NC candidate, Dr Mehboob Beg was among three candidates who had filed their papers yesterday. With this, 15 candidates have filed nomination papers for Anantnag-Pulwama. Scrutiny of the nomination documents is scheduled to be held on Friday while as April 15 stands fixed as the last day for withdrawal of nominations.
Pir Hussain and Dr Beg are, obviously, the top contestants in South Kashmir. While Dr Beg has served two terms as MLA from Anantnag and also functioned as Minister of Health in G M Shah’s government in 1984-86, Pir Hussain has worked as PDP’s MLA from Shangus (Anantnag) in 2002-2008. He has also worked as Minister of State, holding health and power portfolios, in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-led coalition government for three years.
While there were 14 contestants in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections of 2004 in Annatnag-Pulwama, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti had defeated NC’s Dr Mehboob Beg with a huge margin of 38,738 votes. As against the winner Mehbooba’s 74,436 votes, Dr Beg had polled just 35,498. Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami of CPI(M) had stood at number three with 18,400 votes. In the recent Assembly elections too, PDP’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had defeated Dr Beg in his home segment of Anantnag with a margin of over 7,000 votes. Among 16 Assembly segments, in December 2008 elections, PDP has swept 12, Congress bagged two seats of Dooru and Kokernag and CPM leader Tarigami retained his Kulgam in a neck-and-neck contest with PDP, which also got massive vote in Jamaat-e-Islami dominated villages.
NC had bagged two seats of Anantnag and Tral in the Assembly elections of 2002 against PDP’s lion’s share of 10 seats. However, in the recent Assembly elections it has lost both. On the other hand, it has got back one-odd seat of Noorabad where Sakeena Itoo managed to trounce PDP’s stalwart and Cabinet Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar. With Tarigami and Congress being on the side of the ruling coalition, NC has a strong base in 4 segments while as PDP is enjoying groundswell of support in 12 segments in the South Kashmir districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian.
Meanwhile, NC today called a two-day meeting of field workers and district and block level bodies in order to select its candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar and Baramulla besides Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonwar. Sources said that the party patriarch Dr Farooq Abdullah would preside over the meeting of leaders and workers from Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipore districts on Friday and that of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts on Saturday. NC General Secretary, Sheikh Nazir Ahmed, will be among the senior leaders to participate.
Sources told Early Times that in the last few, names of former High Court judge Bashir Ahmed Kirmani and the outgoing Lok Sabha member, Abdul Rasheed Shaheen, have fallen to the tail-end of the men under consideration for Baramulla. According to these sources, one-time MP and former MLA Langet, Sharief-ud-din Shariq, was the front-runner though certain leaders in the party had also proposed the name of MLA Handwara Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan.
While Ramzan has expressed his reluctance, some sections have also pushed the name of Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone’s son, Advocate Hilal Akbar Lone. He could be a probable in case Ali Mohammad Sagar succeeded in getting the ticket for his son and Srinagar Mayor, Salman Sagar, for Srinagar-Budgam. Dr Mustafa Kamal, who was initially considered for Baramulla-Kupwara, is now reportedly under consideration for the Assembly segment of Hazratbal after he has been adamant on staying in the state politics.
After days of leg pulling between two senior leaders and Cabinet Ministers, who made efforts to push each other to the Centre, former Chief Secretary Sheikh Ghulam Rasool is believed to be NC’s front-runner in Srinagar-Budgam. Sources, however, did not rule out Sheikh’s contesting in the Assembly segment of Sonwar and Dr Abdullah’s last-minute decision of contesting himself in Central Kashmir.
While PDP has announced the names of its candidates for five of the six Lok Sabha and all three of the Assembly segments (Hazratbal, Sonwar, Bhaderwah), it has yet to finalise its candidate for Srinagar-Budgam. As of now, senior party leader and MLA Pattan, Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Saifuddin Bhat, just-retired Chairman of Legislative Council Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjoora and Abdul Rasheed Kabuli are said to be PDP probables in that order.
On the other hand, NC has announced the name of only one candidate (Anantnag). For the seats of its share, it will be selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar and Baramulla besides Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonwar in the next two days. It has got to support the coalition partner Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh besides the Assembly segment of Bhaderwah.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
