National Conference announces 18 candidates

Srinagar, Aug 26: National Conference (NC) on Monday evening released the list of 18 candidates of the party who will be contesting the upcoming Assembly elections in the first phase of polling. 

The list of the candidates was approved by the NC President Farooq Abdullah.

As per the list released by the JKNC general secretary, 12 out of 18 candidates will be contesting Assembly elections from south Kashmir districts while the remaining six candidates will contest from Jammu division including Banihal, Doda and Bhaderwah where a friendly contest is expected between the two alliance partners.

The JKNC has given the mandate to former Member of Parliament Justice Hussnain Masoodi from the Pampore Assembly constituency while Muhammad Khalil Bandh has been given a mandate from the Pulwama constituency.

Similarly, Altaf Ahmad Kaloo will contest from Pahalgam while Mehboob Iqbal will participate in the election from the Bhaderwah assembly constituency and Khalid Najeeb Soharwardy from Doda.

Also, the list reveals that Arjun Singh Raju has been given a mandate from Ramban while Sajad Shaheen from Banihal and Sajad Kichloo from Kishtwar.

Also, Pooja Thokur will be contesting from the Pader-Nagsani assembly constituency while Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Mir will contest from Rajpora and Showkat Hussain Ganie will fight from Zainpora.

Sheikh Muhammad Rafi will be contesting from Shopian while Sakina Itoo who has already submitted her nomination papers will be fighting from D H Pora constituency and Peerzada Feroze Ahmad will fight from Devsar.

Chowdary Zaffer Ahmad will contest from Larnoo while Abdul Majeed Larmi will be contesting from Anantnag West and Bashir Ahmad Veeri has been given a party ticket from Bijbehara.

As per the list, Reyaz Ahmad Khan has been given a mandate from Anantnag East constituency.

The two alliance partners - NC and Congress have decided that the former will be contesting from 51 seats while the latter will contest from 32 seats besides a friendly contest between the two parties in five assembly segments.

One seat each has been left free for CPI (M) in south Kashmir and Panthers Party in Jammu division.