Omar Abdullah to contest from Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency

SRINAGAR : Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah will contest elections from the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency, the National Conference announced here on Friday.

Making the announcement, party president Farooq Abdullah also told reporters here that influential Shia leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi will contest from central Kashmir’s Srinagar constituency, which has been an NC bastion.

After the abrogation of Article 370, and the downgrading and division of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, Omar Abdullah, the NC vice president, had announced he would not contest assembly elections unless J-K’s statehood was restored.

Spread over 18 assembly segments, the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat would be one of the keenly watched contests as electoral dynamics in the constituency have changed after delimitation.

The constituency, which encompasses four districts of Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and parts of Budgam, is pegged for a key contest with a largely direct fight between the NC and Peoples Conference chief Sajad Gani Lone, the separatist-turned-mainstream politician.

The junior Abdullah would be banking heavily on Shia support as the constituency has many Shia dominated areas that include Budgam, Beerwah, Pattan, Sonawari and Bandipora, among other pockets.

Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency was redrawn in the delimitation exercise, undertaken after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, to include two assembly seats of Budgam district — Budgam and Beerwah — both Shia dominated, and one each new assembly segment in Baramulla and Kupwara.

Before delimitation, the constituency has been a forte of the NC as the party has wrested the seat ten times since 1957.

The Congress has won four times and the PDP once.