Farooq files papers for Srinagar seat

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 25

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday filed his nomination papers for the 17th Lok Sabha election from the Srinagar parliamentary constituency and vowed to fight communalism.

Farooq, 81, filed his papers at the District Election Office in the city and was accompanied by the party’s senior leadership, including former ministers and legislators.

Those who accompanied Farooq included his son and party vice-president Omar Abdullah, general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and provincial presidents Nasir Aslam Wani and Devender Singh Rana.

The Srinagar parliamentary constituency, which is spread over three central Kashmir districts, is scheduled to go to polls on April 18 and is likely to see a close contest between the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party — the two regional giants and arch-rivals.

After filing the papers in which he took an oath to uphold the “sovereignty and integrity of India”, Farooq talked to reporters and vowed to fight communalism in the country.

“We have to protect our country from communalism, our fight is against it,” he said. “We are confident that we all will win against the fascist forces that are emerging in the country,” he added.

On a question about the unity of the Opposition, Farooq said all parties, including the Congress, were “standing together to fight this evil in India”. “There is no difference as far as that is concerned,” he said.

Farooq, who has served as the state’s Chief Minister thrice and had won the Srinagar parliamentary byelection in 2017, had lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election to Tariq Hameed Karra, who had then contested from Srinagar for the PDP.

The National Conference president had earlier represented Srinagar in the Lok Sabha twice, first in 1980 and then in 2009.

A veteran politician, Farooq became a parliamentarian for the first time in 1980 when he was elected to the seventh Lok Sabha. Since then he has been a five-time member of the Legislative Assembly and also had two terms in the Rajya Sabha.

Last date today

Srinagar: The last date for filing of the nominations for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, which is going to the polls on April 18, is Tuesday. On Monday, three nominations were filed for the Srinagar constituency, a government spokesman said. The nominations submitted to Returning Officer Shahid Iqbal Choudhary at the DC office here were filed by NC candidate Farooq Abdullah, BJP nominee Sheikh Khalid Jehangir and Nazir Ahmad Lone of the Rashtriya Jan Kranti Party. The nominations filed on Monday were the first since the notification for the seat was issued on March 19, the spokesman said. tns