No party retained South Kashmir LS seat since 1989

Will NC change the trend?

Srinagar Apr 1: With a four-way contest likely for the South Kashmir Lok Sabha constituency, no party has retained the Anantnag Parliamentary seat over the last 25 years.

Jammu and Kashmir has five parliamentary constituencies, three in the Kashmir valley and two in Jammu. At present, the South Kashmir Lok Sabha seat is held by National Conference leader Justice Hasnian Masoodi.
On Monday, the NC announced former minister and legislator from Kangan, Mian Altaf, as its Lok Sabha candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.
Announcing the candidature of Mian Altaf, NC Vice President Omar Abdullah said that the party high command believes that there will be no better candidate than Mian Altaf for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.
Similarly, the PDP is likely to field Mehbooba Mufti. Besides, the BJP and Democratic Progressive Azad Party led by Ghulam Nabi Azad have also announced to field their candidates.
Although there may be some independents, the main contest will be between these four political parties.
These parties have intensified their election campaigns and are competing against each other.
Historically, no political party has retained the seat since 1989.
In the 1989 parliamentary polls, PL Handoo of the National Conference emerged as the winner from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
Although parliamentary polls were again held in 1991 across India, they could not take place in Kashmir due to the volatile situation in the valley. This prompted the Centre to promulgate an ordinance to defer elections for these seats.
In the 1996 polls, the Janta Dal candidate Muhammad Maqbool Dar emerged as the winner from this Lok Sabha constituency. Mufti Muhammad Sayeed won the South Kashmir Parliamentary seat in 1998 on the Congress ticket, and the polls recorded around a 28 percent voter turnout.
In 1999, the Lok Sabha seat of South Kashmir was won by the National Conference candidate Ali Muhammad Naik. The voter turnout stood at less than 20 percent. The elections were conducted against the backdrop of then National Conference leader Saifuddin Soz, who voted in defiance of the party whip against the BJP-led coalition government during the confidence motion in Lok Sabha. He later joined the Congress party.
Mehbooba Mufti made her maiden entry into Parliament in 2004 by defeating her rival National Conference candidate, Mehboob Beg, by more than 38,000 votes from the Anantnag constituency.
In 2009, the National Conference candidate Mehboob Beg was declared the winner. He defeated PDP candidate Peer Mohammad Hussain with a mere margin of 5,200 votes. Mehbooba won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014 by 65,417 votes. She defeated the then NC candidate Mehboob Beg, who later joined the PDP. In 2019, NC’s Masoodi won the Parliamentary seat.