Farooq, Nazir among 9 in fray for Srinagar seat

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 24

All nine candidates, including NC-Congress contestant Farooq Abdullah and PDP’s Nazir Ahmad Khan, whose papers were found valid after the scrutiny on Wednesday, are in the fray for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

No nominee withdrew candidature on the last date for the withdrawals today, Returning Officer (RO) of the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, Farooq Ahmad Lone told The Tribune. The nomination papers of nine candidates were found valid on the day of scrutiny of nominations on Wednesday.

Those in the fray after the last date of withdrawals today are Farooq Abdullah (NC-Congress), Nazir Ahmad Khan (PDP), Bikram Singh of J&K Liberal Democratic Party, Chetan Sharma of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and Sajad Reshi of Rashtriya Samajwadi Party (Secular). Independents in the race are Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh, Ghulam Hassan Dar, Farooq Ahmad Dar and Mehraj Khurshid Malik.

As many as 12,59,279 voters, including 6,54,775 men and 6,04,504 women, would decide the fate of the candidates in the polling on April 9. Srinagar district has the highest number of 6,38,698 voters followed by 4,56,276 voters in Budgam and 1,64,305 in Ganderbal comprising the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. A total of 1,559 polling stations have been set up in the constituency for the polling under tight security arrangements.

The byelection to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency was necessitated following the resignation of PDP MP Tariq Hameed Karra both from the party and the Lok Sabha last year over differences with the party on allying with the BJP and handling of the 2016 unrest.