First off the blocks, Sajad Lone enters LS poll fray from Baramulla; People’s Conference to skip Jammu

People’s Conference (PC) president Sajad Lone will contest the Baramulla constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Announcing Sajad’s candidature Monday, PC general secretary Imran Ansari said, “For the Baramulla parliamentary seat the leadership and the rank and file of the party has overwhelmingly endorsed the candidature of our party president Sajad Gani Lone.”

This marks the second time Sajad is throwing his hat into the parliamentary poll ring. In 2009, he had contested the same seat in North Kashmir, but lost to the National Conference (NC)’s candidate. The Baramulla seat has traditionally been won by either the NC or the Congress.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the PC’s candidate Raja Ajaz Ali had lost from this seat to the NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone with a margin of about 30,000 votes. The constituency encompasses extensive stretches from Budgam in Central Kashmir to Gulmarg, Lolab and Uri in the North, accounting for nearly 11 lakh voters.

The PC said it will take a decision on the other two constituencies in the Kashmir Valley – Srinagar and Anantnag – in due course, but will not contest any seat in the Jammu region of the Union Territory (UT).

Ansari said that based on his discussions with party leaders, the PC has decided to “take a call about other seats based on our limited resources and also how best to defeat the common enemy of the people of J&K”.

The party said that apart from Baramulla, they will fight “only where we believe we can win on our own and either seek support or give support respectively to any party.”
“We will not fight in the Jammu region and will not be instrumental in wasting or diverting a single vote through vote division,” Ansari said.

The PC has thus become the first party in J&K to