Ganderbal: National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday filed nomination papers from the Ganderbal assembly seat and made a passionate appeal to the people to vote for him, saying his honour was now in their hands.
Abdullah, accompanied by senior leaders of the party and his sons, filed the papers before the returning officer at the Mini-Secretariat here.
He reached the Mini-Secretariat sitting atop a vehicle, surrounded by a huge number of enthusiastic supporters.
This marks the return of the NC leader to the constituency that he represented from 2009 to 2014 when he was the chief minister of the NC-Congress coalition government in the erstwhile state of J&K.
He fought and won the 2014 assembly polls from Beerwah assembly seat in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Abdullah had also contested from Sonwar seat in Srinagar, but was defeated there by then PDP leader Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Ganderbal has been bastion of the NC and the Abdullahs with NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and incumbent president Farooq Abdullah having represented the constituency several times
After the Centre stripped J&K of its special status and bifurcated the state into two union territories in August 2019, Abdullah had vowed to not fight for a seat in the legislature of a union territory.
However, he recently said it would send out a “wrong signal” when he asks his party colleagues to contest and the people to cast their votes for an assembly “that I may be suggesting that I look down upon”.
“I am conscious of one thing which I had not thought over fully, which is my mistake. If I was not ready to contest an election for an assembly, how can I get the people ready to vote for that assembly?
“How can I hope that my colleagues will seek votes for an assembly which I am not ready to accept or may be suggesting that I look down upon? It has put a pressure on me and I do not want to give a wrong signal to the people,” he had said.
Abdullah had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla seat in north Kashmir, but was defeated by Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alias Engineer Rashid who is in Tihar jail on terror funding charges.
Addressing his party workers at the NC office here, Abdullah said he has come again to Ganderbal after 16 years with a hope to serve the people of the constituency.
“After 16 years, I am again placing myself before the people of Ganderbal with a hope that you will again let me serve as your MLA and servant,” he said.
In a bid to strike a chord with the voters, Abdullah made his over-five-minute speech largely in Kashmiri.
“The people of Ganderbal have suffered a lot after 2016, no one healed their wounds, no one addressed their difficulties. We will talk about all these issues in the coming two-three weeks,” he said.
A teary-eyed Abdullah made a passionate appeal to the voters, seeking their support and vote, saying his honour was in their hands.
Making a rare gesture of holding his cap in his hands, the former chief minister appealed to the people of Ganderbal for a chance to serve them once again.
“Muin dastar (my turban), muin izzat (my honour), muin topi (my cap), are in your hands, ath kariw raech (uphold it),” he said as he held his cap in his hands.
“Just give me one opportunity to serve you, I am appealing to you with folded hands,” he added.
The rare, passionate moment sent his supporters into an emotional frenzy and they raised slogans of Omar Zindabad (long live Omar), assuring the NC leader to sacrifice their lives for him.
Calling upon his party workers to remain united, he said God willing, the party will taste success in the elections.
BJP trying to make as many Independents win in Kashmir as possible to form govt: Omar
National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah Wednesday said the BJP is trying to make independent candidates win as many seats in Kashmir as possible in order to cobble up an alliance with them for government formation.
However, the NC leader said, the voters will not allow that to happen and “when the results will be declared, neither the BJP nor its ploys will be successful”.
“It is clear, and there are media reports as well, that the BJP is trying to make as many independent candidates win from Kashmir so that they can form the government with the help of those independent candidates,” Abdullah told reporters here after filing his nomination papers.
He was responding to a question about several independent candidates submitting nomination papers to contest the polls.
Abdullah said it remains to be seen what the agenda of these independent candidates is.
“Let their papers be accepted, then we will hear about their agenda, what they want to achieve for the people of J&K and what their plan is to stop the BJP,” he added.
To a question about his critics, including former party MLA Ishfaq Jabbar labelling him as an outsider, the former chief minister said the people of Ganderbal elected him three times to Parliament and once to the Assembly before.
“Let’s leave that discussion. The people of Ganderbal have sent me to the Parliament thrice and also elected members as their MLA once. Jabbar became MLA only when I gave him the seat.
“If I had contested from here in 2014, then he would not have won. He knows that I left the seat for him because I had promised him so,” Abdullah said.
He alleged that Jabbar did not come up to that promise and he betrayed the people of Ganderbal.
“All the developmental works in Ganderbal were stopped after 2014, so, I am forced to enter the electoral fray so as to restart those works and start a new era of development in Ganderbal,” Abdullah said.
