Battle for Kashmir’s Heart–Lal Chowk: Seat for two-sided showdown

Over 1.07 lakh voters to decide fate of 11 candidates; First-time contender to face a man who defeated former CM in 2014 assembly elections

Srinagar: The state is all set for the two-sided contest in Lal Chowk assembly segment where 11 candidates are in the electoral fray inducing the first-time contenders.A total of 107199 voters will exercise their franchise on September 25, which include 53425 male, 53773 female and one. The poll body has finalized polling stations including 115 in urban and 22 in rural parts across the constituency.As the constituency is set to go to polls on September 25, the main contest is expected between National Conference (NC) candidate and a first-time contender, Ahsan Pardesi and Apni Party’s Muhammad Ashraf Mir.Mir was earlier MLA Sonwar as he defeated the former chief minister Omar Abdullah with a margin of 4,783 votes.However, in the recent Lok Sabha Apni Party witnessed a setback as the majority of voters from Lal Chowk constituency had voted in favour of NC candidate, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi. From the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, NC had taken a lead in 16 assembly constituencies, followed by PDP with leads in two assembly segments.While the poll preparations are going on, at least 12 candidates had filed their nominations while the form of a candidate Arsalan Yousuf Mir, who had filed the papers on the PDP ticket was rejected during the scrutiny held today.The papers of 11 candidates were accepted during the scrutiny today.Those who are in the electoral fray from Lal Chowk constituency include NC’s Ahsan Pardesi, AP’s Muhammad Ashraf Mir, PDP’s Zuhaib Yousf Mir, BJP’s Aijaz Hussain Rather, Abdul Rashid Haroon from Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference (JKANC), Qazi Zaheer Abbas Bhatti from All India Forward Bloc and independent candidates—Gazanfar Ali, Nissar Ahmad Wani, Sheikh Sarwar Hussain, Khatija Zareen and Manzoor Ahmad Bhat.It would be an interesting showdown as the first-time contender Ahsan Pardesi is contesting against the candidate, Muhammad Ashraf Mir, who was already defeated the former chief minister Omar Abdullah in previous assembly elections—(KNO)