The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday announced its candidates for all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir, reported PTI.

The parliamentary board chief of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sartaj Madni, said that party chief Mehbooba Mufti will contest the general elections from Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency, while its youth wing president Waheed Parra will contest from Srinagar. The party has fielded former Rajya Sabha member Mir Fayaz from the Baramulla seat.

On Wednesday, Mufti said the National Conference left it with no choice but to field its candidates from all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir. She said the party unilaterally decided to contest all three seats in Kashmir.

According to Mufti, her party could have decided to not field its candidates in the larger interests of Kashmir if the National Conference had approached them before announcing candidates.

The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party are both constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or the INDIA bloc. The bloc is a coalition of Opposition parties that is taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the elections.

On April 1, Omar Abdullah, the vice president of the National Conference, announced that veteran leader Mian Altaf Ahmed will contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.

Mufti had emerged victorious from Anantnag in the 2014 general elections. Her father and founder of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, has also represented the seat in Parliament.

On March 8, Omar Abdullah said that his party would not agree to a seat-share deal with the Peoples Democratic Party, reported NDTV.

“I have told you...the party that is number three has no right to ask for a seat,” he said. “If I had been told, before joining INDIA, we would have to weaken ourselves for another member, I would have never joined.”

The Peoples Democratic Party had earlier expressed its desire to contest the polls in alliance with the National Conference if it was given the Anantnag constituency.

The two parties were also members of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, formed after the sudden abrogation of Article 370 and the downsizing of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union territory on August 5, 2019.

Meanwhile, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who formed his own party, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party, has announced he will also be contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the Anantnag constituency.

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