Ganderbal prestige battle for Omar Abdullah; faces tough fight from PDP

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah is facing a battle of prestige in his bid to reclaim the Ganderbal Assembly segment, considered a family bastion that was represented by his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah, father Farooq Abdullah and himself in the past.

Having lost the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the Baramulla constituency, the former chief minister is leaving nothing to chance and has filed his nomination from both Ganderbal and Budgam seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.

The importance that Abdullah is according to his re-election from Ganderbal, which he represented during his tenure as chief minister, can be gauged from the fact that made a emotional appeal from the people when he filed his nomination.

 

Addressing a workers' meeting at the party office in Ganderbal, the NC vice president took off his cap and held it in his palms urging people to vote for him as his "honour lay in their hands".

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister's sons, Zahir and Zamir, are canvassing for their father. NC president Farooq Abdullah has also addressed rallies to drum up support for his son.

When Omar Abdullah took on the mantle of the NC from his father in 2002, he contested the assembly polls from Ganderbal but was defeated by the PDP's Qazi Mohammad Afzal. He, however, wrested the seat from Afzal in the 2008 polls and went on to become the youngest chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, Omar Abdullah decided to leave Ganderbal and field Ishfaq Jabbar who was a new entrant to the NC. While Jabbar won the polls, he was expelled from the NC for anti-party activities in April 2023.

Though the NC's support base remains largely intact, the entry of PDP candidate Bashir Mir into the electoral fray has made the contest for Ganderbal tough.

Mir has fought two assembly elections unsuccessfully from the neighbouring Kangan seat. However, with that Assembly segment being reserved for ST candidates, the PDP fielded him from Ganderbal. His entry in the fray has, to an extent, galvanised the PDP cadre. However, many PDP workers are not happy with the decision.

In the 2014 assembly polls, Mir lost to NC's Gujjar leader Mian Altaf by a thin margin of 1,432 votes.

Mir is a hero for the local populace of the Ganderbal district as he has rescued several people from the Sindh river and has helped the police in such rescue operations multiple times.

Omar Abdullah has faced and overcome the "outsider" tag in the past, especially from the PDP. However, with Mir in the fray this time, the PDP is in no position to make such accusations as its candidate belongs to another assembly segment.

However, Omar Abdullah's former party colleague Ishfaq Jabbar, who is fighting as an Independent, has centered his campaign around this issue.

What makes the electoral battle all the more exciting is the entry of jailed cleric Sarjan Wagay, popularly known as Sarjan Barkati, and Sheikh Ashiq, the candidate of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid's Awami Ittehad Party, in the fray.

The NC vice-president has labelled both Barkati and Rashid as BJP's agents and vote cutters.

While many people were angry with Omar Abdullah for leaving the seat in 2014 and "gifting" it to Jabbar who did not enjoy much support within the party, it remains to be seen whether the NC vice president's return to Ganderbal could invigorate his party cadre and locals to rally fully behind him.

What could go in the NC leader's favour is the developmental works he had undertaken for the constituency while he was the chief minister. A central university was established in Ganderbal in 2009 when Omar Abdullah was the chief minister.

When the polling takes place in the second phase of the three-phased elections on September 25, and the results are declared on October 8, most eyes would be on Ganderbal.

The constituency has around 1.30 lakh electors.