Owais Gul
Srinagar, Sep 10: With the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir gearing up for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the gap of nearly one decade, the parties at majority of constituencies have preferred to field the first-time contenders, who will be testing the waters in the three-phases of elections.
Several parties including National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Apni Party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have given chances to the leaders, who will be contesting the assembly elections for the first time.
As per the details available, the NC has given mandate to nearly 11 candidates from Kashmir division, who will be in the fray for the first time-ever.
In the two lists, the NC has given the crucial Lal Chowk seat to its Provincial Vice President Kashmir Province, Ahsan Pardesi, Hazrtabal to Salman Sagar and Pattan to Riyaz Bedar.
Some of the new faces in the election fray include Peerzada Feroz from Devsar, Choudhary Zulfikar from Larnoo Kokernag, Farooq Ahmad Shah from Tangmarg, Dr Sajjad Shafi from Uri, Irshad Kar from Sopore, Hilal Lone from Sonawari, Javid Ahmad from Karnah and Mushtaq Gurro from Chanapora.
From Apni Party, several candidates would be testing water for the first time in the assembly elections.
The party leaders confirmed that Jeelani Kumar, Owais Khan, Owais Ashraf Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Palpori, Munawar Khawaja, Dr Noor-ud-din and Ata Muhammad are the candidates who will be contesting for the first time from Kashmir division.
In PDP, the party chief, Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti is among the candidates, who will be contesting the assembly polls for the first time.
Besides Iltija, the candidates who are fighting assembly elections for the first time include Syed Tajamul Islam, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi and a few others.
The BJP party has however reposed trust on the leaders, majority of whom are new in the electoral fray.
As per the list for phase-I, only a few are those who have participated in the previous assembly elections while majority of them are contesting for the first time.
Some of the first-time candidates, thanked their party for reposing trust in them, saying that they will work hard to come up with the expectations of the party.
NC’s candidate for Lal Chowk constituency, Ahsan Pardesi said that the party has reposed trust on him from the crucial seat and he will work day in and day out to come up to the expectations of the party leadership. “I will leave no stone unturned to come up to the expectations of my party leadership,” he said.
The first-time contenders would likely turn the tables as they have got a massive support of people in different assembly segments. Iltija–PDP candidate from Srigufwara-Bijbehara, Ahsan Pardesi from Lal Chowk, Salman Sagar from NC and others have got massive public support.
