Anantnag polls
Srinagar: With the last date for withdrawal of candidature on Saturday, eight candidates remained in fray for Anantnag assembly constituency by-polls to contest against the sitting Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti. Amusingly, the controversial MLA for Langate, Abdul Rashid Sheikh had also filed his nomination to contest from Anantnag but withdrew his papers on the last day for withdrawal of candidature, according to the Returning Officer.
The main contest in Anantnag remains between Mehbooba, National Conference leader Iftikhar Hussain Misger and Congress candidate Hilal Ahmad Shah, who was the runner-up for the seat in 2014.
The five Independents contesting in the bypoll include: Tejinder Singh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan, Masroor Ahmad Mir, Mujieb-ur-Rehman and Mushtaq Ahmad Shah.
The bypoll will be the first major test for the PDP since it forged an alliance with the BJP in March last year and formed a coalition government in the state for the second time since its formation in 1999. Mehbooba, a parliamentarian who took oath as the head of PDP-BJP government earlier this year, had termed the alliance with the BJP as her father's “courageous, although unpopular, decision”.
In the last election held in Anantnag in December 2014, 83,574 voters were registered in the constituency and 4,012 were registered as migrant voters. The constituency had registered a polling percentage of 39.71 with 33,200 votes polled, out of which Mufti Sayeed had bagged 16,983 votes.
