Srinagar: With nomination for second phase of the assembly elections beginning today, the Congress party and Awami Itehad Party (AIP) of Engineer Rashid have released the list of candidates to contest the polls.
Congress newly appointed president of Jammu and Kashmir Tariq Hameed Karra will contest the elections as NC-Congress alliance candidate from Srinagar's Shalteng which is erstwhile Batamaloo. He will be locking horns with PDP's Qayoom Bhat who is a new entrant to politics compared to Karra.
Karra has been a legislator from Central-Shalteng in 2008 on PDP ticket, however he lost the 2014 assembly elections against National Conference’s Ifran Shah. Karra was among the founding leaders of PDP but he quit the party in 2017 in protest against the PDP-BJP coalition government following massive agitation in the Valley.
However, Irfan Shah has indicated that he will be contesting as an independent candidate against Karra after NC shared the seat with Congress as per the alliance agreement.
Congress has fielded former legislator Mumtaz Khan from Reasi seat. Khan is the son of famous gujjar leader, late Buland Khan. He had left the party in 2020 and joined Apni Party of businessman Altaf Bukhari. But he quit the party recently to fight the elections on Congress mandate. He was twice elected on the same seat to the JK assembly.
Bhupendra Jamwal from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Iftikhar Ahmad from Rajouri (ST), Shabir Ahmad Khan from Thanamandi (ST) and Muhammad Shahnawaz Choudhary from Surankote (ST) are the other four candidates of the Congress which will contest as alliance candidate with National Conference.
Shahnawaz Choudhary will be locked with Akram Choudhary who was formerly a Congress MLA from the same seat in 2014. However he had quit in 2020 and joined Apni Party. During parliament elections he made another jump and joined NC in anticipation of getting a ticket for assembly elections.
However, when the Congress and NC decided to contest in alliance, Akram's dreams fell flat and he decided to contest as independent. Akram is a cousin of NC MP Mian Altaf.
Congress president Karra said the the Congress Central Election Committee today finalised 23 candidates for assembly seats. He said more names will be announced in coming days.
Meanwhile, jailed MP Engineer Rashid’s rag tag Awani Itehad Party (AIP) released list of six candidates who are contesting the upcoming assembly elections. Among them is former PDP MLC Yasir Reshi who joined the party today. He had joined Peoples Conference of Sajad Lone in 2021. But quit today to contest ad AIP ticket from Sumbal-Sonawari seat of Bandipora district.
The AIP also nominated a former professor Naseer Ahmad Rather from Wagoora-Kreeri seat where he will be locked in contest with Congress-NC candidate Irfan Hafeez Lone. Professor Naseer has quit his job recently to join politics.
Jammu and Kashmir is slated for assembly polls from September 18 when first phase of voting will be held. The second and third phases will be held on September 25 and October 1.
