SRINAGAR: The names of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his father Farooq and uncle Mustafa Kamal were missing from the first list of 32 candidates that the National Conference (NC) released for the state Assembly elections to be held later this year.
The list was released on Tuesday at the NC Parliamentary Board meeting held at the party headquarters here. The board, which met under the chairmanship of party working president Omar, declared the list of 32 candidates after marathon deliberations and decided to meet later this week to discuss the other seats, said a party insider.
The list includes 19 candidates for Kashmir, 12 for Jammu division and one for Ladakh region.
Barring eight sitting MLAs, including the ones from Ganderbal, Hazratbal, Zadibal and Sonawar, the party has given mandate to all its sitting legislators and 10 ministers in the first list.
The CM, who contested the 2008 elections from Ganderbal and Kamal, who won the bypolls from Hazratbal, were not included in the first list. Also missing were Peer Afaq and Yasin Shah, sitting MLAs from Zadibal and Sonawar, respectively.
Party president Farooq, who lost the Lok Sabha polls from Srinagar-Budgam seat, also did not figure in the list. Farooq, according to party sources, would be the party’s CM candidate.
Speculation is rife that he might contest from Ganderbal and Omar either from Hazratbal or Sonawar.
Some of the names in the list include Irfan Ahmad Shah (Batamaloo), Mubarak Gul (Eidgah), Nasir Aslam Wani (Amira Kadal), Shamima Firdous (Habba Kadal), Ali Muhammad Sagar (Khanyar), Abdur Rahim Rather (Charar-e-Sharif), Aga Syed Rohulla (Budgam), Mian Altaf (Kangan), Bashir Ahmad Veeri (Bijbehara).