The second phase of Assembly elections began in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, which will see over 2.5 million voters exercise their franchise. The elections are being held in 26 seats over six districts -- three in the valley and as many in the Jammu division - to decide the fate of over 239 candidates.
One prominent candidate who seeks a mandate on Wednesday is National Conference (NC) vice-president and former chief minister of the erstwhile state Omar Abdullah. He is in the fray from Ganderbal, taking on PDP's Bashir Mir and independent candidate Ishfaq Jabbar. Omar is also challenged by Sarjan Barkati, a cleric running from jail, and Sheikh Ashiq of the Awami Itehad Party (AIP), a former president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Omar, who seeks to reclaim the family stronghold of Ganderbal, is also one of the top contenders for the post of chief minister. But the road won't be easy for the NC vice-president who is still reeling from the hurt inflicted by the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. Omar, who contested from Baramulla Lok Sabha Constituency, was defeated by Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as ‘Engineer Rashid. The latter, jailed under the UAPA, fought the polls from prison and won by more than two lakh votes.
Ganderbal constituency has been represented by the three generations of the Abdullahs. Before Omar, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah held the seats. But, the NC had seen an erosion of its support base in 2014, prompting Omar to avoid contesting there in 2014. He instead sought a mandate from Sonawar and Beerwah. He lost Sonawar then but managed to win Beerwah by just over 1000 votes.
In Ganderbal, Omar also faces a tough challenge from independent candidate Ishfaq Jabbar, who won the seat in 2014 for the National Conference. Jabbar was expelled by the NC for anti-party activities after he sparred with the top leadership. The former MLA is likely to seize a sizable chunk of votes here as he is a local man.
However, speculations are that Omar is hoping that anti-NC votes will split between Jabbar and PDP's Bashir Mir, a prominent leader who enjoys a solid support base in the Kangan seat. Mir, an ace swimmer, is a local hero among the residents of Kangan and Ganderbal after rescuing two youths from the Sindh river and helping the police in such rescue operations multiple times.
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The former chief minister also has a formidable enemy in Sarjan Ahmad Barkati, the jailed separatist leader. Barkati, a face of the protests that rocked Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in 2016.
However, the NC leader is pinning his hopes on the developmental works he initiated in the constituency while he was the chief minister. A central university was established in Ganderbal in 2009 when Omar Abdullah was the chief minister.
Omar is also contesting from the Budgam assembly constituency in central Kashmir, where he is the joint candidate for the NC and Congress. In Budgam, he faces Aga Syed Muntazir of the PDP, but things are slightly better here as the Srinagar-Budgam constituency favoured NC during the last Lok Sabha elections.