Mufti, PDP’s CM candidate,to fight from Anantnag

Alam to face NC’s Sagar; Asiya, Imran,Mir in fray for Srinagar segments

The People’s Democratic Party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed will be fighting the Assembly elections in J&K, slated to be held later this year, from south Kashmir’s Anantnag segment, sources told Greater Kashmir. Mufti will be the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate.
According to sources, the decision to this effect was taken at the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting of the Peoples 
DemocraticParty (PDP) which met in Srinagar last evening under the chairmanship of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed to discuss the electoral strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in the State. 
According to sources, privy to the meeting, the PDP decided to repeat some of sitting legislators, except for party president Mehbooba Mufti and senior leaders Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tariq Hameed Karra who were recently elected to the Lok Sabha.
They said other candidates whose names were finalized at the PAC meeting include Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari’s son Imran Ansari for Zadibal constituency, former trade union leader Khurshid Alam for old city’s Khanyar constituency, Asiya Naqash for Hazratbal, Muhammad Ashraf Mir for Sonawar assembly segment and Fayaz Ahmad for Kupwara assembly segment. The party is yet to decide candidates for Batamaloo, Amira Kadal, Eidgah and Habba Kadal constituencies in Srinagar.
However, other candidates decided include BA Runiyal (Banihal); Javaid Mustafa Mir (Chadoora); GN Lone Hanjura (Charar Sharif); Irfan Pandit Puri (Langate); Bharat Choudhary (Jammu East); Mehboob Iqbal (Bhaderwah); Abdul Haq Khan (Lolab); Shah Muhammad Tantray (Poonch-Haveli); Abdul Majeed Paddar (Noorabad) and Syed Bashir (Rajpora).
A party spokesman said the PAC meet was attended by party president Mehbooba Mufti, senior leader and MP Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Tariq Hameed Qarra (MP), S Rangeel Singh, M Dilawar Mir, Yashpal Sharma, Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari, Dr Sameer Kaul, Tarlok Singh Bajwa and Naeem Akhtar.
“The PAC reviewed the political situation of the state in light of the results of the Lok Sabha elections in which the party swept the Kashmir valley, winning all three parliamentary seats,” the party spokesman said. “The party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed while expressing his appreciation for the well-organized election campaign said the ability of the party leaders and workers in carrying its message to the voters had been crucial to their mobilization. He said the absence of negativity in the party’s poll discourse, clear agenda and our ability to identify actual issues had brought the PDP to the center-stage of state’s political scenario.”
Mufti, according to the spokesman, said peace and development along with special focus on issues facing the youth, especially employment generation, should continue to guide party’s policies and agenda. He said the party would continue to provide an inclusive platform for all regions and communities of the state for opportunities of growth. 
Mufti said there are “strong indicators that the PDP is headed for victory in the Assembly elections as well but the LS election results should not lead to complacency.”
The party spokesman said the names of party candidates were discussed considering different parameters. He said for a party which happens to be the youngest political organisation of the state it was a matter of satisfaction that the selection has to be made from multiple choices. He said the PAC recorded the contribution of all contenders for the party mandate and the obvious inability to accommodate all of them should not shut doors on their growth within the party. “The list of candidates will be released shortly,” he said.

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