NC, PDP KICK-START POLL CAMPAIGN IN KASHMIR VALLEY

SRINAGAR: Kashmir is warming up for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections as major political parties in the valley like the National Conference and the PDP held a series of rallies on Sunday, with the new entrant Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement led by former IAS officer Shah Faesal also making its debut.

National Conference (NC) vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah chose PDP stronghold of south Kashmir to kick-start the mass contact programme as the party organised a rally at Khanabal in Anantnag district of the militancy infested region. Although the party has not announced its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls for the three seats in the valley, Abdullah starting the campaign from south Kashmir shows that the party is focussed on gaining the lost ground in what has turned into a stronghold for the PDP over the past two decades. “The parliamentary board of the party will meet tomorrow (Monday) and the candidates for Lok Sabha elections will be announced only after that,” provincial president of the party Nasir Aslam Wani said.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister, began the campaign trail from north Kashmir’s Kupwara district but other party leaders stayed put in south Kashmir, holding a party convention in Kulgam district.

Sajad Gani Lone’s People’s Conference has made major inroads in the past five years in Kupwara district while the PDP managed to win only one of the four seats in Kulgam district in 2014 assembly elections, in spite of a strong wave in its favour at that time.

Shah Faesal’s People’s Movement was formally launched at a public rally in the heart of the city on Sunday as he promised corruption-free politics that will also help in bridging the gap between the Centre and the state. The voter turn out in Lok Sabha polls in Kashmir has been low since the eruption of militancy in the valley in 1990.