The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on April 12, 2024 announced the names of Omar Abdullah and Shia cleric Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi as the party candidates from the Baramulla and Srinagar constituencies.
Junior Abdullah, while speaking on his nomination, sought to project the upcoming elections as a fight between the BJP’s proxies and the NC in the Kashmir valley.
“This time, our fight is not against any individual. My fight is with those powers which are behind the candidates in the Kashmir valley. It has been decided that I will be contesting from north Kashmir (Baramulla) because the BJP is focusing a lot on it. I want these powers to be defeated there,” Mr. Abdullah said.
This was a veiled attack by Mr. Abdullah against the J&K Apni Party (JKAP) and the J&K Peoples Conference (JKPC). Mr. Abdullah is up against the formidable candidate, Sajad Lone, whose JKPC was a runner-up in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Lones hail from north Kashmir’s Kupwara district and consider it as the party bastion. However, it was the NC that won the 2019 elections by more than 30,000 votes.
“My fight is not against an individual, it is against the skullduggery, treachery, the political machinations of the BJP,” Mr. Abdullah said.
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Udhampur and promise of restoring Statehood and early Assembly elections, Mr. Abdullah said, “It is the verdict of the Supreme Court. It would have been a favour for us if he (PM Modi) had conducted elections before the verdict of SC. It is now a compulsion for him. It is the SC’s verdict to conduct elections in J&K before 30th September. As far as Statehood is concerned, he could not explain to us till now why Article 370 was removed,” Mr. Abdullah said.
In central Kashmir’s Srinagar seat, Mr. Mehdi will take on former Gupkar alliance partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed-ur-Rehmaan Parra. Mr. Mehdi’s father Aga Syed Mehdi, also a Shia cleric, was assassinated in an explosion on the Kanihama-Magam road in Budgam in 2000. The Mehdis are widely respected among the Shia community in Kashmir, which has a sizable population in central and north Kashmir.
Mr. Mehdi emerged as a rare critical voice within the NC after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and expressed his displeasure over party strategy several times. He was also a proponent of an electoral alliance with the PDP and used strong words against the BJP move to end J&K’s special status in his speeches. Both Mr. Mehdi and Mr. Parra are considered independent thinking and ideologically wedded candidates of their respective parties.
The party has already fielded senior Gujjar leader Mian Altaf from Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat. The party is supporting INDIA bloc ally Congress in Udhampur, which is set to go to polls on April 19, and Jammu. It is also not contesting in Ladakh, which is now a union territory but formerly part of Jammu and Kashmir state.
Srinagar will go to polls on May 13 while voting in Baramulla will be held on May 20.
