Dr Farooq Abdullah was 'unanimously' re-elected the president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference for another term on Monday.
The 85-year-old sitting Parliamentarian from Srinagar and former J&k Chief Minister is set to lead the party's aggressive poll campaign in the coming months. No other party leader had filed papers to contest the elections paving way for the 'unanimous' election of Dr Abdullah without facing any contest.
"Dr. Farooq Abdullah has been re-elected as JKNC President in today’s delegate session at Dargah Hazratbal (in Srinagar). The party delegates from both the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir unanimously nominated only one name, Dr. Farooq Sb, to continue as party president,” NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar said.
Dr Abdullah had earlier created a flutter by suddenly announcing his decision to step down from the post of party president on November 18.
Soon after getting reelected at the special delegate session at Hazratbal, marking the 117th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah, Dr Abdullah directed his own son and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to join the poll arena.
Dr Abdullah said, “As party president, I am telling you (Omar Abdullah) that you have to contest the election.”. “Because if we have to fight them then we all have to jump into the fray and contest elections,” he added.
The former Union minister said the BJP “will do anything, even make attempts to buy your loyalties, but God will fail all their designs”. Omar has been consistently saying for a long time that he will not contest the Assembly election until J&K’s statehood is restored
Referring to the 2018 Panchayat polls Dr Abdullah publicly admitted boycotting the panchayat polls in 2018 was “a huge mistake” and the party must contest every future election in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I want to tell the party that boycotting the panchayat elections (in 2018) was a huge mistake. Remember this, we will not boycott any coming election. Instead (we will) contest and win them.”