Farooq Abdullah files nomination for Srinagar LS seat

National Conference (NC) president and former union minister Farooq Abdullah filed his nomination papers for the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on Monday.

Abdullah, who was accompanied by his son and party vice president Omar Abdullah and other NC leaders, filed nomination papers for Srinagar parliamentary seat which is going to polls on April 18 in the second phase of the general elections.

Charismatic Abdullah will be a joint candidate of NC and Congress as the two parties have forged an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. While Congress has not fielded any candidate from Srinagar, NC has returned the favour by not fielding its candidates from Jammu and Udhampur LS seats.

The Srinagar LS seat is spread over three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. It has 12,90,318 voters who will cast their votes at 1,716 polling stations set up in the constituency.

There was no pomp and show as Abdullah filed nomination papers as only a few vehicles of the NC leaders were allowed inside the deputy commissioner's office complex in Tankipora area, here.

As the incidents of militant attacks since the poll dates were announced have increased, the election atmosphere is missing on the ground. The atmosphere remains surcharged as gun battles between militants and security forces and stone-pelting protests near encounter sites has become a routine.

Octogenarian Abdullah, who is pitted against PDP lesser known candidate Agha Mohsin, had never lost an election from Srinagar constituency till 2014, when he was defeated by PDP’s then urban face Tariq Karra. Since then Karra resigned from PDP in 2016 and as Member Parliament and joined Congress in February 2017. Abdullah won the seat in the by-election held in April 2017.

According to political experts, it would be a close contest between Abdullah and Mohsin, though the former has an edge over the later.