NC vice president Omar Abdullah files nomination papers from Ganderbal

GANDERBAL: National conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday filed nomination papers from the Ganderbal assembly seat. Abdullah, accompanied by senior leaders of the party and his sons, filed the papers before the returning officer at the Mini-Secretariat here.

He reached the mini-secretariat sitting atop a vehicle, surrounded by a huge number of enthusiastic supporters. This marks the return of the NC leader to the constituency that he represented from 2009 to 2014 when he was the chief minister of the NC-Congress coalition government in the erstwhile state of J&K.

He fought and won the 2014 assembly polls from Beerwah assembly seat in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Abdullah had also contested from Sonwar seat in Srinagar, but was defeated there by then PDP leader Mohammad Ashraf Mir.

Ganderbal has been bastion of the NC and the Abdullahs, with NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and incumbent president Farooq Abdullah having represented the constituency several times.

After the Centre stripped J-K of its special status and bifurcated J-K into two union territories in August 2019, Abdullah had vowed to not fight for a seat in the legislature of a union territory. However, he recently said it would send out a “wrong signal” when he asks his party colleagues to contest and the people to cast their votes for an assembly “that I may be suggesting that I look down upon”.

“I am conscious of one thing which I had not thought over fully, which is my mistake. If I was not ready to contest an election for an assembly, how can I get the people ready to vote for that assembly?

“How can I hope that my colleagues will seek votes for an assembly which I am not ready to accept or may be suggesting that I look down upon? It has put a pressure on me and I do not want to give a wrong signal to the people,” he had said.

Abdullah had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla seat in north Kashmir, but was defeated by Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alias Engineer Rashid, who is in Tihar jail on terror funding charges.

Polling to elect 90 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be held on September 18, 25, and October 1. (PTI)