The National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah, who had vowed not to participate in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections till restoration of statehood, is expected to fight from the Ganderbal seat. On Monday, he had said he cannot expect people to vote for his party if he himself does not accept the legislative body.
The party released a list of 32 candidates which included Omar Abdullah for the Ganderbal assembly seat, a constituency that he represented from 2009 to 2014 when he was the chief minister of the NC-Congress coalition government. The NC on Monday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming elections. In its first list, the Farooq Abdullah-led party announced the list of 18 candidates, out of 51 seats it is contesting on. According to the agreement, the National Conference will contest 51 of the 90 Assembly seats, while Congress will field candidates in 32 constituencies. The party named its former MP from Anantnag, Justice (Retd) Hassnain Masoodi, as its candidate from Pampore and former legislator Mohammad Khalil Bandh from Pulwama.
Speaking to media after the NC and Congress announced the seat-sharing arrangement, Abdullah said he does not want to send out a "wrong signal" by asking his party colleagues to contest and the people to cast their votes for an assembly "that I may be suggesting that I look down upon".
"I am conscious of one thing which I had not thought over fully, which is my mistake. If I was not ready to contest election for an assembly, how can I get the people ready to vote for that assembly? "How can I hope that my colleagues will seek votes for an assembly which I am not ready to accept or may be suggesting that I look down upon? It has put a pressure on me and I do not want to give a wrong signal to the people," he said.
