Omar Abdullah won’t contest Assembly election in UT

Samaan Lateef 

Srinagar, November 3

Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of Jammu-Kashmir, will not contest the upcoming election while J-K remains a Union Territory even as his party, the National Conference (NC), appoints heads of the 46 Assembly constituencies of Kashmir, seen as a step towards preparation for the upcoming polls.

The NC released the list of Assembly segment incharge for the 46 constituencies, dropping Ishaq Jabbar and his father-in-law Mohammad Sayeed Akhoon from Ganderbal and Hazratbal in Srinagar constituencies respectively.

In 2014, Abdullah contested and won his last Assembly election from the Beerwah constituency which will be headed by Muhammad Shafi now.

“Omar has made it clear that he will not contest the election as long as J-K remains a Union Territory,” a senior NC leader told The Tribune.

The NC leader said the list of constituency incharge has been issued to fill the gaps arising from the Delimitation Commission’s fixing of new geographical boundaries for the Assembly segments.

“Mandates are decided by the party’s parliamentary board only after election are announced. Neither have election been announced nor has the parliamentary board been constituted to finalise mandates,” the NC leader said.

“This list is to fill gaps that have arisen because of delimitation and some other reasons. It is for better coordination.”

However, the list of constituency incharges is an indication that the NC may not have a pre-poll alliance with other constituents of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) and may go solo in the upcoming Assembly election.

In August, the NC passed a resolution that it will contest from all the 90 Assembly constituencies on its own. However, a day later, Farooq Abdullah said a decision on election would be taken only when the Election Commission of India decides the dates.