Mehbooba Mufti's brother to fight bypoll in Anantnag

Srinagar: On expected lines, Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, the cinematographer brother of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, will contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from his home constituency, Anantnag, as the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nominee, party sources here said Tuesday.

The PDP decided to field Nazir Ahmed Khan, who recently quit Congress to join the party, from Srinagar. Mr Khan had lost narrowly to then chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah in the November-December J&K Assembly elections from Beerwa segment of the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

The bypolls on these two seats have been necessitated by the resignation of Ms Mufti following her taking over as the chief minister, and PDP rebel Tariq Hameed Karra quitting both the party and the LoK Sabha in protest against its forging an alliance with the ideologically-divergent BJP.

Ms Mufti and Mr Karra were elected from Anantnag and Srinagar in the 2014 elections, respectively. While voting for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat is scheduled for April 9, that for the Anantnag seat will be held on April 12.

Mr Khan is likely to face in the race Farooq Abdullah, a three-time chief minister who represented Srinagar in Lok Sabha after being elected in the 2009 elections and was subsequently made minister for new and renewable energy in the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.

He lost to PDP’s Mr Karra in the 2014 elections. The other choice before the NC is senior Abdullah’s younger brother Sheikh Mustafa Kamal. Farooq Abdullah, the NC president, has also been authorised to take final call on the issue of the NC’s forging an alliance with the Congress to contest the bypolls on seat adjustment basis.

Mr Mufti (45),  an American Film Institute graduate, has lensed Bollywood blockbusters like Omkara and Kaminey.