Hussain, Mir file nominations for bypoll to Anantnag LS seat

Tasaduq Hussain, brother of J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and state Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir today filed their nominations for the April 12 bypoll to Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
Hussain and Mir filed their nomination papers before Anantnag Deputy Commissioner Syed Abid Rashid Shah, who is the Returning Officer, officials said.
Hussain was accompanied by senior PDP leader and MP Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Minister for Revenue and Rehabilitation Abdul Rehman Veeri among others, they said.
With this, Hussain will foray into the electoral politics. He officially joined the PDP on January 7 at a function organised to commemorate the first death anniversary of his father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

A cinematographer-turned-politician, Hussain said he was ready for the contest and the real challenge for him would start once the elections were over.
"The challenge for me would be to address the aspirations and the expectations of the people and the job will start after the elections are over," he told reporters after filing his papers.

Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, accompanied by former chief minister and National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah and other NC and Congress leaders, filed his nomination papers, officials said.
NC and Congress have entered into a seat-sharing agreement for the bypolls to the Anantnag and Srinagar parliamentary constituencies.

While Mir will contest from Anantnag, NC president Farooq Abdullah will fight from Srinagar.
The by-election to Anantnag Lok Sabha seat has been necessitated after the seat fell vacant in June last after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti won the assembly bypoll.