Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Vice President of the National Conference (NC), will run in the upcoming Assembly elections from the Ganderbal constituency.
This news was shared on Sunday by Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, a Lok Sabha member, and Nasir Aslam Wani, NC’s provincial president, in the presence of Abdullah and Mian Altaf Ahmad, a senior NC leader and MP from the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.
Abdullah visited Nuner village in the Ganderbal district, where political activist Sayim Mustafa joined the NC. Mustafa previously ran unsuccessfully for the Srinagar seat in the Lok Sabha elections, where he was defeated by Syed Ruhullah Mehdi.
The announcement of Abdullah’s candidacy contradicts his earlier statement that he would not participate in elections while Jammu and Kashmir remained a union territory.
Omar Abdullah, who served as the Chief Minister of the former Jammu and Kashmir state from 2009 to 2015, is also a three-time Lok Sabha MP. He has represented the Ganderbal Assembly constituency from 2008 to 2014 and Beerwah from 2014 to 2019. He lost the 2002 Assembly elections in Ganderbal to Qazi Mohammad Afzal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the first phase of the three-phase Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The first round of voting, which covers 24 Assembly segments across the Valley and the Jammu division, is scheduled for September 18. The second phase will be on September 25, and the third on October 1. Votes will be counted on October 4, and the election process will conclude by October 6.
Jammu and Kashmir has not had an elected government since June 2018, following the BJP’s withdrawal from the coalition government with Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP. The state has been under Governor’s rule since then, with the Assembly dissolved by then-Governor Satya Pal Malik.
