A tough fight between big players expected
Srinagar: With 18 candidates in fray in North Kashmir’s Baramulla parliamentary constituency and a registered electorate of 11, 5200, a close contest between the big political players is expected on May 7. The details available with KNS informed that the greater number of candidates fighting the polls in North Kashmir shall have a direct impact on the margin of the votes that will go to the winning candidate. With PDP claiming to emerge with a thumping victory from the North Kashmir Lok Sabha seat, Peoples’ Conference claims to surprise many during this election season. NC’s Sharief- ud-Din Shariq has already maintained that he has won the fight.
During the election of 2009-Shariq emerged as the winner for NC- Congress coalition with 203022 votes while as the PDP candidate Mohammad Dilawar Mir lagged behind with 138208. As per the data available, the Baramulla seat was won over by Syed Ahmad Aga of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1967. In 1971, the seat was again bagged by the same candidate of the Congress. In 1977, the National Conference took control of the seat with its candidate Abdul Ahad getting 147222 votes. In 1980-the seat was again won by NC’s Khwaja Mubarak Shah with 178533 votes. Muzaffar Hussain Beigh at that time being an independent candidate managed 75256 votes. In 1984- Saif-ud-din Soz of the National Conference emerged as the winner from North Kashmir’s turf with 234357 votes in his kitty. Congress again took control of the seat in 1996. That time Ghulam Rasool Kar of INC got 110331 votes.
In 1998- Prof Soz from National Conference won in Baramulla with 131164 votes. In 1999, Abdul Rashid Shaheen of National Conference again won this Lok Sabha seat with 84243 votes. Muzaffar Hussain Beigh as an Independent candidate again turned out to be a runner up from the constituency, managing 48130. In 2004- Abdul Rashid Shaheen of National Conference won the seat with 127653. Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of PDP became runner up with 117758. In 2009, the coalition candidate of Congress and NC Sharief-ud-din Shariq won the seat managing 203022 votes.
Interestingly, 27 candidates have entered the fray from Baramulla and Ladakh parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. While 18 candidates had submitted their papers for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, nine contestants have entered into the fray from Ladakh parliamentary constituency.
National Conference leader and sitting MP Sharif-ud-din Shariq, former Deputy Chief Minister and PDP candidate Muzaffar Hussain Baig and independent MLA and president of Awami Itehad Party Sheikh Abdul Rashid are the prominent faces who would enter into the tussle today. Ghulam Mohammad Mir of BJP, Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah of National Panthers Party, Mohammad Shafi Bhat of Bahujan Samaj Party, Salam ud din Bajad and Khursheed Ahmad Khan of Peoples Conference are the other prominent candidates who have filed their nomination papers from the constituency. Prominent among those who filed their papers for Ladakh parliamentary constituency included joint candidate of ruling National Conference and Congress Tsering Samphel, and BJP’s Thusptan Chewang and Tsering Dorjey as covering candidate. Several independents are also in the fray including Syed Mohammad Kazim who enjoys the backing of the religious schools of Kargil.