Sopore Showdown

Sopore, Sep 22: The Sopore assembly constituency in north Kashmir's Baramulla district is set to witness a 20-candidate race.

National Conference’s (NC) Irshad Rasool Kar, former MLA of Congress Abdul Rashid Dar, and new face of Peoples Democratic Party Irfan Ali Lone are the key contestants in the constituency backed by their parties.

Apart from Kar, Dar and Lone, seventeen other candidates are in the fray.

Sopore has a total of 1,12,793 registered electors of which 55,990 are males and 56,803 are females.

The newly-added areas to the constituency along with new voters of the constituency are expected to play a vital role and can decide the fate of the constituency.

Congress candidate Abdul Rashid Dar won the Sopore constituency in 2014. In 2002, he had defeated NC's Abdul Ahad Vakil and PDP’s Ghulam Muhammad Mir.

In 2008, NC’s Muhammad Ashraf Ganie registered a win while in 1996, NC’s Abdul Ahad Vakil won.

In 1987, former Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani won the constituency as an independent candidate.

In 2014, Dar won the seat defeating Nazir Ahmad Naikoo of PDP with a margin of 2755 votes, while then independent candidate Irshad Rasool Kar got 5324 votes.

In 2008, NC candidate Muhammad Ashraf Ganaie won the seat securing 4368 votes while Congress candidate Dar stood second and lost by a margin of 1064 votes.

In 2002, Congress candidate Dar won the seat securing 2062 votes while NC candidate Vakil stood second and lost by a margin of 547 votes.

In 1996, NC candidate Vakil emerged victorious defeating Congress candidate Ghulam Nabi Mircha by a margin of 11,599 votes.