Srinagar, Apr 29: An interesting showdown is expected in the forthcoming elections on the crucial Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, formerly Anantnag seat, where the parliamentary elections have been held so far13 times with National Conference (NC) registering victory for six times followed by Congress that has 4 triumphs in its kitty.
What remains interesting to watch is whether the bonhomie of the two parties-NC and Congress- will repeat the history or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will grab it for its own existence.
As per the details available with Morning Kashmir, from 1967 to 2019, 13 Lok Sabha elections were held for the seat in which National Conference (NC) candidates have emerged victorious almost six times.
However, the NC turned the table from the constituency in the 1980 elections as the party candidates Ghulam Rasool Kochak, Begum Akbar Jahan Abdullah and Pyare Lal Handoo registered their victory in 1980, 1984 and 1989 parliamentary elections respectively.
The seat was, however, triumphed by Janata Dal candidate in 1996 as its candidate Muhammad Maqbool Dar emerged victorious from the seat in the 11th general elections.
As per the details available, the seat was later occupied by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, the former chief minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state, who won the general elections from the seat in 1998 on the ticket of Indian National Congress.
According to the details, it was the National Conference (NC) candidate again, who triumphed from the seat. Ali Muhammad Naik defeated his rivals on an NC ticket in 1999.
Later, the seat was later occupied by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the first time in 2004 general elections when the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti emerged victorious from the constituency. Mehbooba defeated her rival Mirza Mehboob Beg by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes.
In 2009, Mirza Mehboob Beg once again emerged victorious from the seat by defeating his close rival Peer Muhammad Hussain of PDP by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes.
Nonetheless, Mehbooba Mufti once again got elected as a Member of Parliament from the constituency in the year 2014 when she defeated her rival Mirza Mehboob Beg by over 65,000 votes.
In the last general elections, the NC candidate, Hassnain Masoodi emerged victorious from the seat by defeating his rival Ghulam Ahmad Mir of the Indian National Congress by nearly 7,000 votes.
However, as the boundaries were changed in the recently held delimitation exercise, Rajouri and other areas have been included in the Anantnag constituency, which has now been named the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.
The crucial constituency is expected to witness a tough competition between the two major candidates including INDI Alliance’s Mian Altaf, a senior NC conference leader supported by INC and PDP candidate Mehbooba Mufti, who has clinched the victory from the seat two times so far.
Mehbooba has so far lost the seat only once in the 17th Lok Sabha elections as she stood third and got only 30,524 votes.
Mian Altaf, who is prominent among the Gujjar community, is expected to give a tough contest to Mehbooba Mufti in the upcoming elections.
Notably, the Elections Commission of India is considering rescheduling the polls for the constituency after several political parties have demanded the deferment of polls in the wake of the road closure and prevailing weather conditions.
