While the constituents of the INDIA bloc have yet to arrive at a consensus on seat sharing, the Peoples Conference on Monday announced the nomination of Sajad Lone for the Baramulla seat. BJP has announced support for Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, who is mulling contesting the election as an Independent candidate on this seat.
The announcement of Sajad Gani Lone as a candidate of the party for the Baramulla Parliamentary seat has made elections on this segment very interesting because the BJP has already declared to support veteran politician Muzaffar Hussain Beigh in this seat of north Kashmir.
General Secretary of the Peoples' Conference and former minister Imran Reza Ansari announced the candidature of party chief Sajad Lone on the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.
"For the Baramulla Parliamentary seat, the leadership and the rank and file of the party has overwhelmingly endorsed the candidature of our party president Sajad Gani Lone", Ansari said.
He further said that Sajad Lone has acceded to the demand of the party. He will be the candidate of the party from Baramulla Parliamentary seat.
BJP announced support for Muzaffar Hussain Beigh in this seat.
Working assiduously to open its account in Kashmir Valley in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has announced to support Muzaffar Hussain Beigh if he chooses to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency.
Beigh, who had rejoined the PDP on January 7, announced on January 20 that he was not associated with the PDP.
Beigh, co-founder of the PDP and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K, made this announcement after attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally at Jammu on February 20.
Quick to encash the popularity of Beigh in north Kashmir, BJP on the very next day announced that the party would support the former Deputy Chief Minister in Baramulla Lok Sabha provided he would contest the election as an Independent candidate.
Although Beigh has yet not made any announcement of contesting Lok Sabha elections, there are rumours within political circles about his intention to contest the upcoming Parliamentary polls as an independent candidate from the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Beigh secured victory in this constituency as a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
NC announced not to leave this seat for coalition partners
The National Conference, one of the constituents of the INDIA bloc, already announced not to leave any of Kashmir Valley's three seats for coalition partners.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has repeatedly declared that discussions of seat-sharing would be held only on two Lok Sabha seats of Jammu province and the lone Parliamentary constituency of Ladakh.
In the 2019 Parliamentary election, the Baramulla constituency witnessed a triangular contest between the National Conference, Peoples Conference, and Independent candidate Engineer Rashid.
National Conference Akbar Lone emerged as a winner with 1,33,426 votes, and Peoples' Conference Raja Aijaz Ali stood second with 102327 votes. The independent candidate Engineer Rashid, polled 101500 votes. The PDP candidate Qayoom Wani polled 53191 votes. Congress candidate Haji Farooq Ahmad Mir secured fifth place with 34,532 votes.
Peoples' Conference not to field candidates on two seats of Jammu
Ansari announced that the Peoples' Conference would not fight in the Jammu region and would not be instrumental in wasting or diverting a single vote through vote division.
"Our position about the other two seats in the Kashmir region will become clear in the coming week or at the most two weeks", he said.
"We will take a call about other seats based on our limited resources and also how best to defeat the common enemy of the people of J& K", he said, adding, "Apart from Baramulla, we will fight only where we believe we can win on our own and either seek support or give support respectively to any party best suited to defeat the biggest enemy of the people of J&K".
