Mehbooba to contest from Anantnag
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 23: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) today announced its candidates for Lok Sabha constituencies while as the party has decided not to field any candidate from two Jammu constituencies to ensure the votes are not divided.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, said that she will contest the upcoming Parliamentary elections from South Kashmir constituency of Anantnag.
“I will contest from Anantnag seat, ” she told reporters here.
She said that the party has decided to field its leader Aga Mohsin from Srinagar constituency. The party has already announced its candidate for the Baramulla constituency, Abdul Qayoom Wani, who has also filed nomination papers for the polls.
Mehbooba said that her party has decided not to field candidates from Jammu and Udhampur Parliamentary constituencies in the interest of people.
Click here to watch video
“PDP is the largest party in the State and we discussed about Jammu as well. Last time we got around 2.75 lakh votes from Jammu-Rajouri Parliamentary constituency. And we got 30-40,000 votes from Udhampur-Doda segment. Some leaders said that we should contest elections from Jammu and Udhampur constituencies. But some of our workers, civil society and other groups appealed us that if by our contesting elections secular vote is getting divided and the forces that are bent upon trying to destroy Jammu and Kashmir this time are getting strengthened. So it was decided that in the larger interest of the State we should not contest elections from Jammu and Udhampur Parliamentary constituencies”, she said.
“We are seeing that in the country the coalitions are not shaping as they should have been but we made a unilateral effort here so that secular vote should not get divided and we made an effort for that. We want to strength secular forces”, she said.
She also added that the decision for Ladakh Parliamentary seats will be taken soon.
“The PDP Parliamentary Board meeting was held today. We had already taken decision on fielding some candidates and about others decision was taken today”, she said.
Mehbooba said that people here are being pushed to the wall and violence must come to an end at an earliest.
Regarding ban on JKLF, Mehbooba said that Kashmiris are once again being used as ‘scapegoats’ in the pretext of elections. “In democracy, there is battle of ideas and such kind of things should not happen. Every voice should be fought politically rather than suppression and oppression,” she added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
