Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has thrown her hat in the poll arena by deciding to contest Lok Sabha polls from Anantnag parliamentary seat.
She had earlier vacated the seat in June 2016 to become Chief Minister of the State after the demise of her father Mufti Mohd Sayeed.
She had defeated National Conference candidate Mehboob Beg by a margin of over 65,000 votes in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar on Saturday, Mehbooba also announced her party's decision of not fielding any candidate from two Lok Sabha seats of Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur- Doda. With this announcement she has come on the same page with the National Conference and the Congress party.
The former Chief Minister said the decision was taken to prevent division of ‘secular’ votes in the Jammu region.
She also announced that Agha Mohsin would be the party’s candidate for Srinagar parliamentary seat.
The party had given mandate to Qayoom Wani from Baramulla constituency.
With the entry of Mehbooba Mufti in the fray the Anantnag Parliamentary seat is set to witness quadangular contest. National Conference has fielded Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, while BJP has given mandate to Sofi Yousaf while Congress is yet to announce name of its candidate.
Due to security concerns, LS bypolls weren’t conducted in Anantnag since April 2017.
In view of the prevailing security situation the Election Commission of India has decided to conduct polls in three phases to ensure fool proof security arrangements.
Meanwhile, in another significant development former IAS officer Shah Faesal on Saturday said that his party won’t contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a press conference at Press Club in Srinagar, Faesal said that they will strengthen the party first before taking the poll plunge.
Faesal launched his ‘Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Movement’ party during a function in Srinagar on last Sunday.