Old warhorse Farooq reigns strong

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 23

At 83, Farooq Abdullah, the old warhorse of J&K politics and president of National Conference (NC), trounced his opponents on Srinagar parliamentary seat and gave a much-needed boost to the morale of party workers ahead of Assembly poll.

The three-time chief minister, Abdullah defeated his nearest rival Aga Mohsin of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a margin of over 70,000 votes. This will be Abdullah’s fourth term as a Lok Sabha member. He was first elected in 1980.

Abdullah, who spearheaded the party’s poll campaign along with his son Omar, secured 1,06,750 votes against PDP’s Mohsin, who polled 36,700 votes. People’s Conference (PC) candidate Irfan Ansari, who stood third, secured 28,773 votes. Meanwhile, BJP candidate Khalid Jehangir lost his security deposit.

Soon after his victory, Abdullah expressed hope that the new dispensation would do justice with J&K and engage in a dialogue with Pakistan to address the Kashmir issue.

NC’s retaining the Srinagar seat would have an impact on the upcoming Assembly elections, the dates of which have not yet been announced. Abdullah had lost to Tariq Hameed Kara of PDP in 2014 Lok Sabha poll, but won the seat in 2017 bypoll.

The Srinagar constituency, spread over the three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, had recorded a voter turnout of 14.8 per cent.