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PDP fails to organise Srinagar mega poll rally

Last Updated 04 May 2019, 11:45 IST

Despite winning five out of eight assembly seats in Srinagar in 2014 elections, regional PDP led by Mehbooba Mufti did not organise any mega poll rally in the district during the campaigning for Lok Sabha polls for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat which ended Tuesday evening.

Mehbooba campaigned in parts of Budgam and Ganderbal districts of the Srinagar parliamentary seat and addressed several rallies in favour of PDP candidate Agha Mohsin. However, the PDP was conspicuous with its absence in Srinagar district even though their political opponent National Conference organised three rallies in the district.

However, PDP District President Srinagar and MLC Khurshid Alam says due to time constraints and Mehbooba’s belief in her party leaders from Srinagar, the party decided not to organise a mega rally for her.

“We haven’t abandoned Srinagar. Our leaders organised and addressed rallies in almost all constituencies of Srinagar,” he said.

Since 2014 elections, PDP has lost two of its former MLAs from the district with Abid Ansari from Zadibal joining the Peoples Conference led by Sajjad Lone and former cabinet minister Syed Altaf Bukhari from Amira Kadal now supporting the NC candidate Farooq Abdullah in the parliamentary polls.

However, the PDP still has two former ministers – Muhammad Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash - in the party with Naqash being conspicuously absent from election campaigning and party activities since the fall of PDP-led coalition government in June last year.

But Alam says Naqash has her own style of functioning. “She is doing her work in the constituency in the way she deems good,” he added.

In 2017, PDP lost the Srinagar parliamentary seat to Abdullah in 2017 after a by-poll was necessitated following the then PDP MP Tariq Hameed Karra’s resignation from the party and as MP. In 2014 LS polls, Karra had defeated Abdullah by over 40,000 votes making it NC president’s first ever defeat in his 42-year-old political career.

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(Published 17 April 2019, 08:59 IST)

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