Kupwara: The newly carved out seat of Trehgam in district Kupwara is set to witness a direct fight between Peoples Conference and National Conference.
Spread over parts of Kralpora, Trehgam, Keran and Kupwara tehsils, this seat was the lone new seat carved out in Kashmir region during the reorganization of J&K’s electoral map by a three-member delimitation commission headed by Justice (retired) Ranjana Desai.
As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), with a voter population of more than 78000, this seat is set to witness a direct fight between PC and National Conference.
While PC has fielded former MLA Bashir Ahmad Dar as its candidate, NC has chosen former minister Mir Saifullah as its nominee.
According to political observers, there would be a direct contest between PC and NC, even as candidates from other parties are also in the fray.
“Both these parties have a traditional support base in the segment,” they said.
Citing previous elections, they said, PC has an edge over National Conference in Kralpora tehsil which is native place of late Abdul Gani Lone.
According to them, PDP candidate Muhammad Afzal (a contractor by profession) and Apni Party candidate Dr. Nooruddin Shah could also get sizeable chunk of votes in Trehgam tehsil of the segment.
Er. Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) has fielded Nazir Ahmad Mir, a former bureaucrat, as its candidate. His father late Ghulam Qadir Mir was a junior minister in National Conference government in 1977.
According to observers, it would be interesting to watch whether he would dent the prospects of the National Conference in the segment.
“He comes from a family of traditional NC supporters and political rivals of late Abdul Gani Lone. It would be keenly observed whether his candidate would have any impact on NC vote bank,” they said—(KNO)
