Mehbooba Mufti To Contest Lok Sabha Polls But Party Keeps Off 2 J&K Seats

Team Udayavani, Mar 24, 2019, 9:34 AM IST

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti will be the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate from the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency but the party has decided not to field any candidates for Jammu and Udhampur seats in an effort to prevent a division of “secular votes”.

Announcing the party candidates, the PDP chief said Aga Mohsin will be the party candidate for Srinagar seat.

“I will contest from Anantnag seat,” she told reporters here.

The party has already named former employees’ union leader Abdul Qayoom Wani for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.

Ms Mufti said the parliamentary board of the party, which met earlier on Saturday, decided not to field any candidates from the two Lok Sabha seats in Jammu region.

“The opposition front is not functioning as it should have but we have taken a unilateral decision to not field candidates from these seats so that the secular vote does not get divided,” she said.

Ms Mufti said her party had taken around 1.75 lakh votes in 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Jammu seat and over 30,000 in Udhampur seat.