This was the first meeting of the PAC after the defeat of Mehbooba on Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat and also the INDIA bloc disowning her party by refusing to assign her party even a single seat in the elections.
Engineer Rashid's lead of votes against Omar Abdullah has crossed one lakh as counting of votes was underway.
Mehbooba is facing a tough challenge from the National Conference (NC) candidate and religious leader of Gujjar community Mian Altaf and also Apni Party's Zafar Iqbal Manhas, who is being backed by the BJP that had earlier formed a coalition government with Mehbooba.
Mir was addressing an election rally in favour of the party candidate for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, Zafar Iqbal Manhas at Mendhar along the Line of Control (LOC) in the Poonch district of the Jammu division.
The Kashmir valley is, these days echoing with a high pitch campaign for the three Lok Sabha seats across the valley but the interesting key poll plank of the regional parties is of calling each other a “stooge of BJP”.
Mehbooba was taking part in a roadshow in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam area during her election campaign.
The minister also accused the Congress, National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of staging fake encounters and handing over guns in the hands of the Kashmiri youth and these parties are responsible for encouraging terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
Political parties are worried that the migration is bound to upset their poll calculations.
The NC had unilaterally announced that it would field its candidates on all the three seats and fielded Mian Altaf from Anantnag. The NC had left two seats in Jammu for the Congress as part of the INDIA bloc's seat-sharing agreement.
Nasir Aslam Wani, who led the NC delegation, said they impressed upon the Election Commission the need for holding assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir together with the Lok Sabha polls.
