Two former MLAs feature as Ghulam Nabi Azad’s party names 13 candidates in first list
The party gave mandate to 13 candidates for various seats in Kashmir and Jammu regions, including to two former legislators Abdul Majeed Wani and Mohammad Amin Bhat
Former chief minister (CM) Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Sunday announced its first list of candidates for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
The party gave mandate to 13 candidates for various seats in Kashmir and Jammu regions, including to two former legislators Abdul Majeed Wani and Mohammad Amin Bhat. They will contest from Doda East in Doda district and Devsar in Kulgam district respectively.
“In view of the upcoming assembly elections, the parliamentary board has released the list of following constituency candidates,” RS Chib, general secretary organisation, said.
Similarly, Mohd Aslam Goni, former advocate general, will be the party’s candidate from Bhaderwah, Adv Saleem Parray from Dooru , Muneer Ahmad Mir from Lolab, Bilal Ahmad Deva from Anantnag west, Ghulam Nabi Wani from Rajpora, Mir Altaf Hussain from Anantnag, Qaisar Sultan Ganai from Ganderbal and Nisar Ahmad Lone from Gurez.
In Srinagar, the party has given mandate to Ghulam Nabi Bhat, Amir Ahmad Bhat and Peer Bilal Ahmad from Eidgah, Khanyar and Hazratbal constituencies respectively.
In the first phase, 24 assembly segments both in Jammu and Kashmir regions will go for polls on September 18 where the last date for filing nominations will be on August 27. This will be the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, which stripped the region of its special status and split it into two Union Territories, that assembly elections will be held. The last assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir was held in 2014.
Azad, 75, formed the DPAP in September 2022 after ending his five-decade-long association with the Congress. The former union minister had managed to rope in several former Congress legislators in his party who were holding good sway in their respective areas in Kashmir and Jammu.
However the party couldn’t do well in the recent Lok Sabha polls across Jammu and Kashmir. The party contested its first election, fielding candidates in Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri and Udhampur but they, however, lost their deposits in all the three.
So far Peoples Democratic Party and Apni Party have issued names of party candidates for the assembly elections or constituency incharges.
On Monday, PDP announced names of eight constituency in-charges for different assembly segments in south Kashmir in an indication of them contesting polls from that particular seat. The Apni Party on Wednesday released its first list of candidates for assembly constituencies in south Kashmir giving mandate to eight candidates.
Among the prominent names, Iltija Mufti, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, will face her first political test in the assembly elections from Bijbehara constituency while senior PDP leader Mehboob Beig filed nominations from Anantnag.
NC’s Sakina Itoo filed her nominations from Damhal-Hanjipora constituency –previously named Noorabad before the delimitation - in south Kashmir’s Kulgam.
