Legacy at Stake: Will Sajad Lone Continue His Family’s Winning Tradition in Handwara?

Srinagar, Sep 28: The third phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is going to be interesting as several top leaders are in the electoral fray with all eyes on some of the Assembly Segments including Handwara where the former minister Sajad Gani Lone and four-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the constituency—Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan are vying for the seat.
According to the details available with The Morning Kashmir, Handwara is one among the 40-segments going to polls on October 01, 2024 when J&K would witness the last and third phase of Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, held after the gap of 10 years.

The constituency has a total of 98,404 electorates including 50,026 male, 48,376 female and two Transgender. The poll body has also made arrangements for the polls and set up a total of 120 polling booths including seven in urban areas and 113 in rural areas.
The assembly segment in north Kashmir is difficult to predict as the voters have elected NC candidate Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan four times and also chose Sajad Gani Lone—the present candidate once and his father—Abdul Gani Lone thrice since 1962.
In the previous assembly elections held a decade ago in 2014, Sajad had won the seat by defeating Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan with a margin of 5,423 votes. Sajad’s father, Abdul Gani Lone has won the seat three times in a row in 1967, 1972 and 1977. He contested two elections on INC’s ticket and later secured the seat on the ticket of Janata Party.
The political analysts are expecting a thrilling contest on the seat between Sajad and Choudhary, who are amongst the seven candidates vying for the seat.
Since the NC and Congress have forged a pre-poll alliance, Choudhary is expected to gain a good vote share as the INC too has its base within the constituency.
The two parties have won the seat almost six times out of ten assembly elections.
It would be interesting to see whether the Peoples Conference (PC) Chairman would be able to retain the seat for the second consecutive time or whether the NC candidate will once again have a stronghold in the constituency for the fifth time since 1983.