Ghulam Nabi Azad decides to challenge NC, PDP on Anantnag LS seat

Srinagar: A day after National Conference (NC) declared influential Gujjar leader Mian Altaf as its candidate for Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, Ghulam Nabi Azad, a seasoned politician Tuesday decided to challenge the dominance of the NC in the region by deciding to contest from the same seat.

Azad, who served as Union minister and also the chief minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, resigned from the Congress in 2022 after almost five-decade long association, terming the grand old party “comprehensively destroyed” and lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing” its entire consultative mechanism.

Later he floated his own outfit named Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).

“Today the core committee of DPAP met and we have decided that (party president) Ghulam Nabi Azad will contest the Anantnag-Rajouri seat,” party leader Taj Mohiuddin told reporters.

Azad, who also served as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 2015-2021, will be fighting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time after he lost 2014 parliament elections against MoS in PMO, Jaitendra Singh from Udhampur LS seat.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, is also expected to contest from the same seat. She is a two-time MP from Anantnag, which has flipped between the PDP and the NC since 1999.

It is yet unclear if the BJP will field a candidate or offer tactical support to Azad. Anantnag is also a seat disputed by the NC and the PDP, both of which are part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc. Neither, though, is willing to concede the seat to the other.

The prestige seat may see a three-way fight, where the NC holds edge as its candidate not only commands respect among tribal population of border Rajouri-Poonch districts, also known as Pir Panjal, but Anatnag and Kulgam districts of the valley as well.

A seasoned politician in his own right, Altaf has remained MLA from Kangan constituency in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district for five consecutive terms from 1987 to 2018.

Stripped of its special status under Article 370 in August 2019 and converted into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir is without an elected government for the last almost six years. Lok Sabha polls will be the first major election in the UT after the abrogation of Article 370.