Omar Abdullah likely to retain family bastion Ganderbal

Ganderbal, Oct 14: National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah is likely to keep the Ganderbal assembly seat and is expected to vacate the central Kashmir’s Budgam seat.

Omar won both the seats in the recently-concluded assembly elections with thumping margins.

A final decision on the matter is expected in the coming days, top NC leaders said. The Representation of the People Act allows a person to contest an election from a maximum of two constituencies.

However, the candidate can retain only one and must resign from the other seat within a set time after the announcement of the results. There will be by-elections for the seat vacated.

Omar for the third time chose to contest from his family bastion Ganderbal and won Ganderbal for the second time.

The Ganderbal constituency is Omar’s family bastion, and the constituency has sent three generations of Abdullahs to the J&K Legislative Assembly.

Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah won the Ganderbal seat for the first time in 1977. His son, Farooq Abdullah, won the seat thrice in 1983, 1987, and 1996.

However, in 2002, Omar was defeated by PDP leader Qazi Muhammad Afzal from the Ganderbal seat. In 2008, Omar wrestled back the seat.

However, in 2014, he moved to central Kashmir’s Beerwah constituency, leaving the seat for Sheikh Ishfaq, another NC leader then.

This time, in a double victory, Omar won both the Budgam assembly seat defeating People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi by a margin of over 18,000 votes as well as Ganderbal seat defeating PDP’s Bashir Ahmad Mir by a margin of over 10,500 votes.

A senior NC leader said that any decision regarding which seat Omar would retain and which he would vacate would be taken by the party leadership in the coming days.

Sources in NC said that the role of senior NC leader and Member of Parliament from central Kashmir Aga Syed Ruhullah will be important in this regard as by-elections will be held for the Budgam seat if Omar vacates it.

Interestingly, the NC’s district bodies of both Ganderbal and Budgam want Omar to represent them. However, he has to choose between the two.