Party MP Ruhallah haunts NC ahead of tomorrow’s bypoll for Budgam assembly seat

The Budgam bypoll has turned into an unexpected headache for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, as what was supposed to be a routine contest for the National Conference has spiralled into a political embarrassment, with NC’s own MP, Aga Ruhullah, refusing to join the campaign and instead slamming his party’s “broken promises”.

Ruhullah’s rebellion couldn’t have come at a worse time—he didn’t just sit out; he armed Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP and other rivals with fresh ammunition to target Omar on the campaign trail.

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The irony was that Ruhullah was Omar’s handpicked choice to replace his father and party patriarch, Dr Farooq Abdullah, in Srinagar during the last Lok Sabha polls. Now, the protégé seems to be haunting the mentor.

Ruhullah won the Budgam assembly seat in 2002, 2008, and 2014.

The Budgam seat, vacated by Omar himself after he chose to retain Ganderbal, has suddenly become the epicentre of NC’s internal rumblings—and Omar’s biggest political test yet.

Polling for the Budgam and Nagrota seats will be held on Tuesday, and the counting will take place on 14 November.
It is not a cakewalk for the BJP in Jammu’s Nagrota seat that fell vacant following the death of a towering party leader, Devender Singh Rana, who was the younger brother of the Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh. Rana’s daughter, Devyani Rana, is contesting the byelection on the BJP ticket. She is facing a tough contest from Panthers India candidate and former Education Minister Harshdev Singh, as well as NC’s Shamim Begum, a sitting member of the district development council.

The NC that won the seat in ten elections is locked in a close contest with the PDP in Budgam, where 17 candidates are in the fray. Being a Shia-dominated constituency, the main contest is between NC’s Aga Syed Mehmood Mosavi and PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir.

Omar has single-handedly campaigned for the NC candidate, whereas Mehbooba Mufti and her daughter Iltija Mufti have held a series of poll rallies. Local leadership of the BJP sought votes for its candidate, Syed Mohsin.

The Nagrota seat is witnessing a keen contest with Dr Jitendra Singh campaigning for his niece Devyani Rana. Omar’s poll rally for the NC candidate witnessed the breakdown of the public address system, as a result of which he had to cut short his speech.

Devyani’s father, Devender Singh, had won the Nagrota seat with the highest margin of over 30,000 votes, while the NC finished in second place.

Besides the BJP, the NC, and the Panthers, there are six other candidates in the fray. As many as 97,893 voters are registered in the Nagrota constituency, where the election authorities have set up 150 polling stations.