NC, Cong join hands, name Farooq for Srinagar LS bypoll

Srinagar: It is now official. Opposition National Conference (NC) president and three-time chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, will seek election to Lok Sabha from home constituency Srinagar as a joint candidate of his party and Congress.

The byelection for the prestigious seat to be held on April 9 has been necessitated after sitting MP and ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party rebel Tariq Hameed Karra quit both the party and the LoK Sabha in protest against its forging an alliance with the ideologically-divergent BJP. He had defeated Mr Abdullah in the 2014 elections.

The NC and Congress also announced at a joint press conference held here on Wednesday that the J&K PCC chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir will be their consensus candidate for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat where polling has been scheduled for April 12. The seat fell vacant due to the resignation of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti following her taking over as chief minister of the state last year.

Mr Abdullah’s son and the NC working president Omar Abdullah said, “We have had exhaustive deliberations within our party and so has the Congress to work out a joint strategy to give a fight to the PDP in Srinagar and Anantnag. After exhaustive exercise, it has been decided the National Conference and the Congress would fight the byelections jointly.”

He added, “The Congress has assured us that all its workers and well-wishers will ensure a landslide victory for Doctor Sahib (Farooq Abdullah) in Srinagar while our rank and file in Anantnag will work for the victory of Mir Sahib.”

Mr Mir who was present at the press conference endorsed Mr Abdullah saying, “We decided to forge this alliance and fight the bypolls jointly in the interest of our people and preserve democratic values and, at the same time, ensure defeat to communal and divisive forces and those supporting them.”