Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 23: The National Conference today released second list of 14 candidates for Assembly elections including 13 for Jammu region and one in Kashmir. Barring two new faces, the NC has fielded a dozen such candidates, who had lost the previous Assembly elections, some of them even twice or thrice.
After Congress and NC made it public that there will be no pre-poll alliance between the two incumbent coalition partners, the NC today announced candidates for six Assembly constituencies, held by the Congress including four Ministers in the Alliance Government.
The National Conference Parliamentary Board cleared the list of 14 candidates after a meeting in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State after a meeting under the chairmanship of National Conference president and former Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah in the presence of Chief Minister and party’s working president Omar Abdullah.
NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar announced the list.
The NC has fielded Rajya Sabha member and former Finance and Education Minister Mohammad Shaffi Uri from Uri Assembly segment in Baramulla district of the Kashmir Valley. Uri had lost two consecutive Assembly elections from Uri in 2002 and 2008 to Congress candidate and present Health and Medical Education Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din, a veteran Congress leader.
Apart from Taj Mohi-ud-Din, the NC has also fielded candidates against three other sitting Congress Ministers including Works Minister Abdul Mujeed Wani in Doda, Minister for Cooperatives Dr Manohar Lal Sharma in Billawar and Minister for Technical Education Viqar Rasool in Banihal.
NC has against pitted MLC Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardhy from Doda Assembly segment, who had lost twice to Mujeed Wani in 2002 and 2008 Assembly polls and Romi (Sanjeev) Khajuria from Billawar against Minister for Cooperatives Dr Manohar Lal Sharma. Romi had been defeated in Billawar in 2008 Assembly elections.
The party has repeated Sajaad Shaheen from Banihal against Minister for Technical Education and MoS Power Viqar Rasool. Shaheen had lost 2008 Assembly election to Viqar.
The National Conference has repeated its candidates against two more Congress held segments of Ramban and Surankote. They included Peer Mushtaq Bukhari in Surankote and Dr Chaman Lal in Ramban. Both of them had tasted defeat from Congress candidates in 2008 Assembly polls. While Ramban is represented by Ashok Kumar of Congress, Surankote MLA and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Choudhary Aslam had passed away recently.
The National Conference has placed bets on Dr Kamal Arora in Bishnah and Taranjit Singh Tony in Suchetgarh, who had lost three and two successive Assembly elections in 1996, 2002 and 2008. It has again fielded Satpal Lakhotra from Raipur-Domana constituency, who had lost the seat in 2002 and 2008 after winning it in 1996 as Janata Dal nominee and later switching over to the NC.
The party has named Satwant Kaur Dogra from Samba Reserve seat. Dogra had contested 2008 Assembly election from the same constituency in 2008 as BJP candidate but later joined the ruling national Conference.
The party has, however, fielded two candidates KK Bakshi in Kathua and Chandu Ram from Hiranagar Reserve seat.
It has again nominated Sunil Verma from Udhampur and Devender Singh Bindu from Basohli, both of whom had been defeated in 2008 Assembly election.
The Parliamentary Board of the National Conference, which cleared candidates, comprised Finance Minister A R Rather, Harbans Singh, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Transport and CAPD Minister Mohammad Ramzan, CM’s Advisor Qamar Ali Akhoon, NC provincial president for Jammu Devender Singh Rana and provincial president for Kashmir, Nasir Aslam Wani.
The NC has already announced 32 candidates for Assembly elections, which were due to be held in November-December. With today’s list of 14 candidates, the NC has announced 46 candidates. The Assembly has a strength of 87.
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