National Conference leader and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will not contest the Assembly election from his family bastion, Ganderbal, but from Sonwar in Srinagar and Beerwah in Budgam.
This is the first time that Mr. Abdullah will be fighting elections from two constituencies and in both, he is trying his luck for the first time. “I had zeroed in on the Sonwar constituency for me, but the party insisted that I contest from Beerwah too and I listened to them. I decided a couple of years ago that I did not want to fight from Ganderbal again and wanted to go to a place from where I hadn’t contested before. In fact, when Ashfaq Jabbar, who is from Ganderbal, joined the party, I told him that I would be keener on seeing him contest from there.” Mr. Jabbar has been given the ticket from Ganderbal. The NC earlier released a list of 62 candidates, but did not announce the constituency from where its chief ministerial candidate, Mr. Abdullah, would contest. The party on Friday announced 22 candidates.
