The Anantnag-Pulwama Parliamentary seat in Jammu and Kashmir will witness a direct fight between the National Conference’s sitting MP Mehboob Beg and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.
Of the 16 Assembly segments that fall under the constituency, 12 are represented by the PDP, two by the Congress and one each by the NC and CPM.
Mehbooba represented the seat during 2004-09 and lost the seat by a margin of 5,000 votes in the 2009 polls.
If Mehbooba loses this time too, it will provide a major boost to the NC in the September-October Assembly elections. Political observers say the PDP has an upper hand in the constituency after Mehbooba’s entry to the fray. However, the NC candidate said: “I am more confident than in 2009. I am connected on the ground with the people and can feel that Mehbooba is on a shaky ground.”
He said with the support of its ally Congress, the NC would win some pockets in south Kashmir, where the party faced some problems.
Beg claimed there was a strong anti- incumbency wave against PDP legislators who had failed to deliver on its promises despite representing the Assembly constituencies in south Kashmir for the past 12 years.
The constituency, spread over Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian districts of south Kashmir, will go to the polls on April 24.